Lettice Events wants to make food waste at events a thing of the past with the help of some imagination, forward planning and an Orca. Kate Ng finds out how its owner and head chef are tackling the problem

Is a zero-waste wedding possible? Meet the company making it their mission to do so

The Sustainable Wedding Alliance was formed to help couples understand how to make sure their wedding doesn’t leave a lasting impact on the planet.

The Sustainable Wedding Alliance: Planning an environmentally conscious wedding | Guides for Brides

Naturally, this is a mission that is close to our hearts here at GREEN UNION!

WEDDING BUSINESSES - The Sustainable Wedding Alliance: Helping Environmentally Conscious Wedding Businesses Come Together To Create A More Sustainable Industry

We spoke to experts and designers to help shed light on sustainable bridalwear, and offer advice on how to make eco-friendly fashion choices for when it’s time to say “I do.”

Sustainability in Bridalwear: Everything You Need to Know

Michelle is the founder of the Sustainable Wedding Alliance, a purpose driven organisation driving sustainable change in the wedding industry. The Alliance works with businesses of all sizes to help them to understand sustainability, what it means for them, and how they can develop long term sustainable strategies, that will benefit people, profit and planet. Businesses that become members are assessed on their sustainability processes and procedures, and receive a personalised action plan to make appropriate changes. Membership also includes accreditation, for those businesses who achieve a minimum standard.

Michelle is passionate about creating a more sustainable wedding industry, through education, support and accreditation.

Michelle is an Associate of the Institute for Environmental Management & Assessment and has a Foundation Certificate in Environmental Management.

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Michelle Miles

The Sustainable Wedding Alliance have released their first impact report, covering the first two years of driving sustainable change in the wedding industry. As a business that is working towards becoming certified B Corp, the Sustainable Wedding Alliance strives to balance business success with social and environmental sustainability. They value transparency, integrity and collaboration, and empower the wedding industry to embrace sustainability and integrate it into their daily business practices. They are committed to these values which are reflected in their first impact report. Founder, Michelle Miles said: “It’s important to us that we have an impact beyond our own business, the Sustainable Wedding Alliance was created to drive sustainable change, to empower the industry and communities to build knowledge and confidence so that we can thrive. Sustainability isn’t just a check box, it’s a way of working, we are all continually learning and improving, no one is perfect.” The impact report includes sections on ethical finance, marketing and shared responsibility. It reports on their carbon footprint for 2021 and 2022, and what actions they’ve taken to become carbon neutral. It also includes their commitment to reducing waste to landfill and celebrates reaching their zero waste target in 2022, and their focus is on inspiring and educating businesses we work with to also remove single-use plastic from their operations. The Sustainable Wedding Alliance exists to drive positive change After several years in development the Sustainable Wedding Alliance was incorporated in December 2020, they then launched their website in March 2021, ran an industry-wide survey in April and hosted the first Sustainable Wedding Summit in May 2022. Following that, they invited the wedding industry to join the Alliance and become a member. Since then they’ve grown their membership, designed an industry accreditation, continued asking the industry, and couples about sustainability and launched the Sustainable Wedding Awards. The Sustainable Wedding Alliance was founded by Michelle Miles, who has twenty years of experience in the events and wedding industry. The Alliance has been growing in membership steadily over the last two years, with more and more businesses in the industry wanting to work more sustainably, alongside couple demand building, it’s clear that the Sustainable Wedding Alliance is having an impact far beyond its own business. See the full report here: Sustainable Wedding Alliance 2020-2022 Impact Report<blockquote>“I started the Sustainable Wedding Alliance in response to the number of businesses I was working with, in the wedding industry that wanted to become more sustainable but just didn’t know where to start. I’d been working on the idea of creating a community, a place where people that shared the same ethos could come together over a shared interest in making the wedding industry more sustainable. Despite 2020 being a difficult year, I used the downtime to develop the Alliance. It was clear to me that there was a need for a place where people could come together, learn about how they could make their businesses more sustainable, share their experiences and help each other.” “I’m so proud of everything we have achieved in the last two years. It’s been such a privilege to work alongside so many wonderful businesses, helping them to implement sustainable strategies that will enable their business to grow in a way that places sustainability at the heart of what they do.”</blockquote>

The first Sustainable Wedding Alliance Impact Report is out!

The Sustainable Wedding Alliance recently (April 2022) ran a survey on couples that are planning their wedding, or recently married to find out how important sustainability is to them. And the results speak for themselves. We asked couples… Do you think you’ve become more environmentally conscious in the last 12 months? 89% said they had become more environmentally conscious. How important is sustainability when planning your wedding? 98% of couples told us that sustainability was a factor when planning their wedding. With 78% saying it was important or very important to them! Are you more likely to book a supplier with sustainable credentials? 69% of couples told us that they were more likely to book a supplier if they had sustainable credentials, with an additional 18% saying maybe! Where are you having your wedding? 70% of couples told us that they were getting married within 30 miles of their home address, followed by 27% in the UK. This survey was run throughout April, shared on our social media, website, on our Eco Edit newsletter at the Sustainable Wedding Summit and through nationwide media outlets such as Guides for Brides. The sample size was 45 couples who completed the survey anonymously. In addition to the couples survey, we also ran a business survey alongside it, asking businesses where they are on their sustainable journey. You can see the results of that survey on our blog ‘How sustainable is the wedding industry right now?’. This is the second year that we have run our sustainability survey. We are committed to driving sustainable change in the wedding industry, so will repeat the survey annually in April allowing us to build a picture of how the industry is changing. &nbsp;<blockquote>It's fantastic to see that couples getting married have become more conscious about the environmental impact their wedding could have, and that they're starting to take steps to not only reduce it. It's about taking the first step, making one sustainable swap after another.</blockquote>

Sustainable weddings are on the rise

Michelle is the founder of the Sustainable Wedding Alliance, a purpose driven organisation driving sustainable change in the wedding industry. The Alliance works with businesses of all sizes to help them to understand sustainability, what it means for them, and how they can develop long term sustainable strategies, that will benefit people, profit and planet. Businesses that become members are assessed on their sustainability processes and procedures, and receive a personalised action plan to…

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