Fokker Terminal: A CO2-neutral Venue

Sustainability is a growing challenge when it comes to events and at the forefront of the race to become more sustainable are the event venues themselves. The Hague is home to a wide variety of impressive event venues, each of whom are tackling how to become more sustainable. One of those venues is the Fokker Terminal, which achieved the status of a ‘CO2-neutral venue’ in 2019.

The former School for Aircraft Engineering located in The Hague is a historical monument to the region's aviation past, present, and future. Its move to CO2 neutrality is a shining example of the potential in repurposed buildings. We sat down with Tim Rosman to learn about Fokker Terminal’s sustainability journey. 

To begin their sustainability developments and prepare Fokker Terminal for a more environmentally friendly future, their team focused on what areas they could identify as the most contributing factors to unsustainable practices. With identifying those sectors of pollution, it made it a simple equation of how to turn those sectors into neutral emitters, thus providing sustainable events. The three main areas are identified as: Energy, Water, and Waste.

Towards 100% Energy Neutral:

One of the first major investments that Fokker Terminal made was to speed up their transition towards sustainable energy usage. This meant investing in solar panels, which they did by placing 600 panels on the roof of the building. This allows them to provide 70% of their electricity needs from energy they generate through the panels. The remainder of the energy is sourced from renewable sources. They donate the CO2 emissions used from that last 30% of energy needs, allowing them to be a 100% energy neutral venue.

Towards 100% Water Neutral:

In partnership with Made Blue, Fokker Terminal is able to calculate the water usage of each visitor to the venue per day. This includes everything from drinking water to toilets to food consumption. For example, a cup of coffee contributes 10 litres of water usage because of the need to grow the beans, package the coffee, and ship it around the world. This means that each visitor has an average water usage per day at the venue of around 240 litres, a staggering number. To compensate for this, Fokker Terminal and Made Blue ask visitors to donate just six cents for their water usage, and with that they are able to make the same amount of water available elsewhere. With a one time investment of 30 euros for an event of 500 people, water usage can be offset. The project is called a litre for a litre and helps provide water around the world and water education to areas badly in need of informational resources. With this effort, Fokker Terminal is a 100% water neutral venue.

Towards A Zero Waste Event:

Together with waste management company Renewi, Fokker Terminal has implemented an innovative waste management system. Previously, their waste was already split into four streams (glass, paper, plastics, and residual waste). With a one time extra investment from clients, they are able to add a top level of waste separation and create five different streams. With this, unlike in the past where waste was collected as normal, it is now collected separately from normal waste streams and is divided separately. With this separation, Fokker Terminal receives an extensive report on the waste collected that day, including a breakdown per stream. For example, a 2020 conference on Circular Economies generated 26 total kilos of waste and they saved enough CO2 by using this extensive form of waste separation to power the lights in the building for four days. Additionally, Renewi had staff on site to educate visitors during the event.

This collaboration allowed Fokker Terminal to take steps towards implementing more sustainable practices such as adopting 100% biodegradable disposable items and no longer using bottled water. Now they are that much closer to be able to hold a truly sustainable event. Many of these aforementioned solutions are already included in the base price of utilising the venue and those that are not included come at a minimal cost. They still recognise the problems with lack of control over the entire sustainability chain, especially with waste management once the waste leaves the building and they are careful to stay away from greenwashing as much as possible. Their initiative and already created solutions are a template for the industry as a whole to move towards.