ACC Liverpool: Sustainability, Accessibility and Social Value

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HQ spoke to Adrian Evans about the social value of the ACC Liverpool Group and the lasting impact on the city region and beyond
Magazine:
13th Jan, 2025
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Since the launch of the first Social Value Plan in 2022, ACC Liverpool Group has put social value front and centre, maximising the positive impact it has on the local area. Looking ahead, the organisation has prioritised initiatives that reinforce its environmental sustainability strategy, maximising the legacy of events and ensuring that its campus is as accessible as possible. HQ spoke to them about the social value of the Group and the lasting impact on the Liverpool city region and beyond.

Over the past year, ACC Liverpool Group – owner of ACC Liverpool, Exhibition Centre Liverpool and the M&S Bank Arena – has worked hard to integrate social value throughout its organisation, turning new initiatives into policies and processes that have become second nature to its spaces. Their social impact report looks at the progress the group has made in championing sustainability for its communities and workforce. “Social value impact has become critical to our business in order to respond to the world around us and the needs of our customers and clients. Although we operate in international markets, our Impact Plan recognises the responsibility towards our hometown. We do this through the four main pillars of People, Environmental Sustainability, Industry Influence and Community,” Adrian Evans, Director of Conference & Business Events at ACC Liverpool Group, tells us. Its charitable strategy aims to support projects and initiatives that will directly make a difference to people living in the community.

Achievements so far include carbon-neutral status, a Green Meetings Silver accreditation, a Legacy Champions network, a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) workplace strategy and the creation of a citywide Accessibility Forum in partnership with Liverpool ONE. “We ensure that any event legacy projects benefit our local community and align with the city region priorities such as food poverty and health inequality. Our focus is to build a business that truly represents the diverse communities we serve.” As a result, the organisation’s social value has increased by £1.1m (€1.29m) to a current £6.4m in 2023/24 (around €7.5m), using the National TOMs Framework to calculate this investment. The Themes, Outcomes and Measures (TOMs), developed by the Social Value Portal, is a British framework that provides a robust and reliable way of evidencing an organisation’s social value activity and responsibly driving sustainable business. “We chose to work with Social Value Portal because it aligns closely with the four pillars within our social value strategy by providing a ready-made set of KPIs. Measurement and quantification are essential so that we can benchmark our progress and set appropriate targets for the coming years,” adds Evans.
 

"We are committed to ensuring our business does not negatively impact the community by supporting our local city region as much as we can."


Empowering event organisers to create truly welcoming and accessible experiences, ACC Liverpool launched in February a toolkit full of tips, resources and best practice suggestions for all stages of the planning process, from initial concept to post-event evaluation. Through its Accessibility Strategy, the company has also introduced improvements throughout its venues to help clients create more inclusive, safe and accessible events. “Accessibility is a key part of our community strand, and we have made great strides in this direction, such as recently achieving Gold accreditation from Attitude is Everything this year for the M&S Bank Arena. We have also been working with Liverpool ONE, another leading organisation in the city, to create an Accessibility Forum made up of individuals with valuable life experience. Our aim is to encourage a joint approach to creating an accessible city region.” The venue has also partnered with AccessAble, the UK’s leading provider of detailed access information, making available an access guide to help event planners better understand the various access requirements across the campus. Organisers will be able to include a link to the guide in their pre-event communications, and delegates will have a free app to access the guide conveniently on the go.
 

  


ACC Liverpool has been working with leading sustainability organisation Carbon Neutral Britain to measure total organisational emissions in order to put a carbon reduction plan in place. “We continue to take steps to become a more sustainable business, and last year, we achieved carbon neutrality across our entire campus. We were also the first large site to become a member of Isla, which is supporting our journey towards Net-Zero Carbon emissions.” Furthermore, they have a roadmap to achieve this Net Zero Carbon target by 2030, in line with the City Council, which has committed to making Liverpool a climate-positive city by that year. Another related workstream concerns the diversity of the workforce that they have managed through the ‘People’ pillar, driving changes in the organisation to reflect theLiverpool City Region. “We know that potential candidates are making decisions based on a complex set of criteria; organisations that are committed to their people, sensitive to the local context and supportive of local communities is a crucial part of that process,” says Evans. “We hold regular volunteering days at local charities, have a wellbeing forum to ensure staff can influence policy, and a colleague-led Charity Champs group who fundraise for our foundation.”
 

"We want to share social initiatives with our colleagues to create a workplace that employees are proud to be a part of."


ACC Liverpool Foundation works in the area of social solidarity to encourage local community groups and voluntary organisations to apply for projects that aim to support and reach important community groups and diverse communities, through a fund administered by the Community Foundation for Merseyside. “In particular, we seek to support groups whose aims align with the priorities of our city region, such as initiatives targeting marginalised and hard-to-reach groups, food poverty and health inequality. In a bid to support music infrastructure in the city, the next round of funding will also provide investment for grassroots music projects,” says Evans. But the grants don’t stop there: “This year, we’re supporting charities such as End Furniture Poverty, providing bed packs for children in Merseyside, Knowsley Foodbank, distributing basic baby items to families, and the Opening Doors Project via a food bank with two home-cooked meals a day and slow-cooking courses to encourage the cooking of healthy meals.” In addition, they also support people with new skills through Porchfield Community Association, which will develop a programme addressing the educational, social and health needs of older people through digital training and handwriting classes; the Bobby Colleran Trust runs an 8-week arts and crafts therapy programme targeting children’s wellbeing, confidence, resilience skills; and the Comedy Trust which supports young people’s mental health and wellbeing through stand-up comedy. For this project, they partnered with a school to work with LGBTQ+ pupils.
 

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