The Racing Foundation Offsets Delegate Travel to 2021 Horseracing Industry Conference

18 Feb 2022

Delegates who travelled to the Horseracing Industry Conference last year have had their carbon emissions offset by the Racing Foundation. 

The Horseracing Industry Conference, which is organised by the Racing Foundation in partnership with the University of Liverpool Management School, was held at Windsor Racecourse on September 30, 2021.

Environmental sustainability featured as a keynote topic at the conference with the aim of developing awareness of the impact of climate change on the horseracing industry.

Rhi Lee-Jones, Communications and Events Manager at the Racing Foundation, said: “Environmental sustainability is a key area of focus for the Racing Foundation. 

“As well as using funding to support sustainable initiatives, we are developing our own environmentally sustainable practises as evidenced in the organisation of the Horseracing Industry Conference.

“Networking is deemed a key highlight of the conference and therefore it was appropriate to hold the event in-person rather than virtually. 

“However, it is crucial to minimise the impact doing this can have on the environment.

“After taking steps to reduce the carbon footprint of the event, offsetting the carbon emissions produced by delegates’ travel to the conference is one small step we can take towards a more sustainable future for our industry and our planet.”

How does the offsetting process work?

The more you reduce your carbon footprint the better, yet there comes a certain point where you’ve reduced as much as possible and certain emissions are still generated. 

For example, at an event you can encourage people to travel together, use public transport or use electric vehicles, but a certain amount of emissions will still be emitted. 

Carbon offsetting is the process of negating (or offsetting) the carbon emissions released into the atmosphere by purchasing credits from a project that has absorbed or avoided the same. 

Carbon credits can come from a wide variety of environmentally friendly projects including reforestation, solar, wind energy and renewable energy. 

The project must meet certain criteria and will support numerous UN SDGs. Each project will also be certified by a credit standard, such as Gold Standard or the United Nations.

How did the Racing Foundation offset delegates’ travel carbon emissions? 

• As part of a post-event feedback survey, delegates were asked how far they had travelled to the event and by which mode of transport.
• The total carbon footprint of the delegates travel was calculated using this information which equated to 14 tonnes of carbon.

•Green ecommerce platform More:Trees was used to source the offset of 14 tonnes of carbon.

 For those wishing to offset an event in the future or to learn more about offsetting travel emissions, please contact [email protected]