BH Live’s sustainable food sourcing policy has helped place London Aquatics Centre and Copper Box Arena in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park top of the London sports venues’ medals table for providing sustainable fish choices for elite athletes, event delegates and dinner guests at the two former Olympic venues.
In 2012, the London Olympics became the first major sporting event to serve only verifiably sustainable fish. The food vision for the Games was widely hailed by conservation groups and sparked a major campaign to call on other large fish-serving businesses to serve sustainable fish, leading to the UK Government, NHS in England and Wales and nearly one third of Universities following suit.
“Today’s medal table identifies four specialist contract event caterers carrying the torch for fish sustainability and driving the campaign to make sustainable fish the only fish on the menu,” says Ruth Westcott, Co-ordinator of Sustainable Fish Cities.
“We’ve worked hard over the past six years to establish BH Live as a leading supplier of creative, high-end catering for top national and international events that has taken the sustainable message right to its heart,” says Alex Robertson, BH Live Head of Hospitality. “Seeing us top the league at London’s most iconic sporting venues is testimony to our success.”
BH Live has a creative and sustainable approach to delivering hospitality for conferencing and exhibition clients and events goers across multiple venues. Its unequivocal attitude towards food quality, provenance and sustainability, together with its social values, sets the benchmark for the event and hospitality sector.
BH Live buys ingredients from sustainable sources, and locally wherever possible. It plays an active role in the Sustainable Food Cities/Fish Cities partnership, paying particular attention to sustainable fishing and farming methods. BH Live also supports local initiatives and events to promote provenance, such as New Forest Marque Food Safaris, Sustainable Food Cities Restaurant Hops and Bournemouth’s Food Festival.
The Copper Box Arena and London Aquatics Centre opened to the public in 2013 and 2014 respectively. As the venues’ exclusive catering partner, BH Live works with operator GLL, who manages the two venues on behalf of the London Legacy Development Corporation. BH Live sources fish for events at the London venues exclusively from Southbank Fresh Fish, the most sustainably accredited fish provider in the UK and among the first to sign the Sustainable Fish Cities pledge following the London 2012 Olympics.
“We are passionately strict in adhering to all the standards qualifying fish and seafood as sustainable,” says Matt Couchman, Sales Manager, Southbank Fresh Fish. “Unlike some suppliers, if it’s in the red zone we simply won’t supply it. Despite the demand for wild sea bass, for example, as far as we’re concerned it’s off the menu. BH Live shares our ethos and specifies only fish that complies with all three principles of the MSC Fisheries Standard will be served to its customers, making them a fantastic ambassador and partner to work with.”
Elite swimmers, sponsors and guests at the recent 2016 European Aquatics Championships and Masters at the London Aquatics Centre enjoyed fish dishes using hake, salmon, smoked mackerel and sweet cure herring from Scotland, cod from Iceland, haddock from Norway and smoked in Grimsby, and cockles from England – all species from catch areas within an MCS rating of 1-3.
High profile events in the Copper Box Arena serving wholly sustainable menus in 2016 have included the Vitality Netball Superleague Grand Final, One Bauer Media Awards and TechCrunch Disrupt.
“It’s great to see both the Copper Box Arena and London Aquatics Centre continue to fly the flag for sustainable fish in legacy mode after London 2012’s commitment,” says Russ Barnes, GLL’s Partnership Manager for the two venues in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. “Sustainability is becoming increasingly important to our customers and event organisers, so this acknowledgement of our work alongside BH Live is very welcome.”
In Bournemouth, for global brand Lush Handmade Cosmetics, BH Live created themed dishes featuring sustainable ingredients suitable for a predominantly vegan and vegetarian guest list. It also showed off Dorset’s finest at the annual Dorset Business Awards, Bournemouth’s Tourism Awards and AFC Bournemouth’s End of Season Player Awards.
“This is a very proud moment for the team in what has already been a hugely successful year, winning Bournemouth Tourism’s Specialist Fine Dining Experience award and being placed as a finalist in the global AIPC Innovation Awards,” says BH Live Director of Venues, Pat Coyne. “BH Live has its roots in a coastal location where seafood is top of the menu, so signing the pledge for the Bournemouth and London venues was an obvious step for us to take. I am delighted to see our efforts in promoting food provenance and sustainability so well rewarded. Sportspeople and others attending BH Live events across the South can trust that we are playing our part in protecting fish stocks and serving the finest quality produce from the seas around the UK.”