Pembroke’s Most Sustainable May Ball Ever Sets the Standard for the Future
A guest blog co-authored by Verner Viisainen (Sustainability Officer of Pembroke May Ball 2019) and Mrinank Sharma (Co-President of Pembroke May Ball 2019)
The 2018/19 academic year at Cambridge came to a close in June with the traditional May Week celebrations, with numerous flamboyant events held across Cambridge after the end of exams. Amongst those events was Pembroke May Ball, themed “Ember: Out of Ashes, Into Flight”, held on Wednesday 19th of June which was received very well; one guest remarked that “Pembroke May Ball was perfect” while another claimed “Pembroke had the best May Ball of 2019”. Although Pembroke is no stranger to holding spectacular May Week events, the May Ball in 2019 stood out in a completely different way: through commitment to sustainability.
Planning began shortly after the 2018 June Event ended with the selection of this year’s presidents, Aran Macfarlane and Mrinank Sharma, who decided to appoint, for the first time, a dedicated Sustainability Officer whose responsibilities would include advising other committee about how different aspects of the event could be made more sustainable. Following the finalisation of the full Committee in early Michaelmas Term, the ambitious target of making the 2019 May Ball the most sustainable in Pembroke’s history was agreed upon. Additionally, we hoped to achieve a Platinum accreditation rating, the highest level available, on the Sustain-a-Ball auditing scheme independently run by the Cambridge Environmental Consulting Society (CUECS).
As a result of hard work and determination we far exceeded our expectations; not only did we obtain a Platinum Sustain-a-Ball accreditation rating but also, our unprecedented score of 97% made us the most sustainable event of the thirteen which participated in the Sustain-a-Ball scheme across Cambridge in 2019 and far surpassed the score required for a Platinum ranking (65%). No previous event has ever achieved such a score in the history of the scheme.
Amongst the many sustainability strategies employed for the event, the staffed wasted stations, which enabled waste to be sorted directly into recyclable and compostable waste bins, was one of the most effective. These waste stations allowed us to save approximately 18,000 litres of waste, or over 70% of the total generated waste, from landfill, where they would likely breakdown anaerobically and release harmful greenhouse gases. This was a tremendous achievement which would not have been possible without the support of our waste contractor, the Cambridge City Council, and our tremendous event staff who tirelessly sorted the waste throughout the night. It was also great to hear from our guests how much this aspect of the event was appreciated.
Sustainability motivated many of the key areas of the May Ball including food, drinks, entertainment and decor. Of all the food served, almost three quarters was vegetarian or vegan and thus significantly more environmentally friendly than comparable meat options due to lower greenhouse gas emissions as well as lower water and land use. Furthermore, in contrast to previous events, no ruminant meat (e.g beef or lamb) was served at the event representing a 6 fold reduction of the associated CO2 emissions per gram of protein when compared to poultry or pork, according to a study in Nature, with a similar implementation for the University Catering Services resulting in a 33% reduction in emissions per kilo of food purchased.
We also made dedicated efforts to reduce the use of bottled drinking water, a common sight at May Week events, by introducing dedicated drinking water stations throughout the event, allowing guests access to drinking water without the need for unnecessary plastic that is currently polluting our oceans and detrimentally affecting animal livelihoods. This saved an estimated 1000 half litre bottles of water from being needlessly used.
Additionally, transport distances and the associated emissions were considered heavily when selecting entertainment. Consequently, over 85% of all musical entertainment came locally from Cambridge, with the remaining acts making the short journey from London.
Finally, though it might not have been evident from the amazing decorative elements on show during the May Ball, the Decor Team made a concerted effort to source almost all of the used materials from second-hand sources, with a significant amount coming from Cambridge Scrap Store. For example, the beautiful volcano, located on the night in Ivy Court, utilised a discarded wood pallet, the lava rocks were constructed from recycled paper mache and the “Ember”’ sign was made from an old bar frame.
Like every year, the success of the event was due to the effective teamwork on the part of the student-run May Ball committee, especially with regards to incorporating sustainability into their respective roles. We would like to thank the College for their support throughout the year and the Master and Fellows for allowing us to put on this event on the College lawns. We are also especially thankful to the College staff from Catering, Maintenance, Housekeeping and Gardening Departments who went above and beyond to help us prepare for the event. The success of this event would not have been possible without all of you and we are very grateful.
As we look ahead now to the start of Michaelmas Term and the start of the next cycle of May Week events in Pembroke and across Cambridge, we both wonder what will the legacy of the 2019 May Ball be for the years ahead? Large-scale events such as May Balls can have a significant negative environmental impact if sustainability is not given appropriate priority during the planning stages but yet there are concerns that such sustainability measures take away from the ‘tradition’ and enjoyability of the final event. However, we believe that we have shown that a successful May Week event and a more sustainable May Week event are not mutually exclusive but in fact they go hand in hand. Given the current climate predicament and how it is progressing, more and more attendees to such events will demand that sustainability be taken seriously and that environmental impacts are minimised as much as possible, which we have seen first-hand from the positive reactions we got for this year’s event. Despite our best efforts, there are still so many ways in which the sustainability of the event can be further improved, such as reducing the total amount of waste generated by switching to reusable cups, and it would be amazing to see these changes come to fruition. As such, we hope that this focus on sustainability becomes part of the ethos for Pembroke’s future events and Pembroke will continue to lead by example in its commitment to reducing its environmental footprint across the College.
References
[1]https://www.facebook.com/CUECS/photos/a.533179513441932/2471186412974556/?type=3&theater
[2] https://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6392/987.full
[3] https://www.nature.com/articles/nature13959
[6] https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/scrapstore
[7] https://www.ipcc.ch/report/srccl/ and https://www.ipcc.ch/srocc/home/