The Night Noodle Markets event series took out the Best Sustainable Event category at the New Zealand Event Association (NZEA) Awards last night held at Shed 10 in Auckland.
The Night Noodle Markets were recently held in Auckland and Christchurch, and will soon take place in Wellington’s Basin Reserve from Friday 5 to Sunday 14 April.
Stuff events and sponsorship director David Blackwell said he was thrilled with the win, which recognises the ever-popular travelling food festival’s achievements across a number of sustainability initiatives.
“It’s fantastic to receive this accolade and to celebrate the amazing work of the team,” Blackwell said. “I hope we can inspire more events to prioritise sustainability practices like we have and reduce the carbon footprint of events across New Zealand.”
The award commends the results of the 2017/18 Night Noodle Markets series, which saw over 380,000 people attend the events in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington. Simple initiatives such as introducing eco-packaging and efficient waste management systems saw almost 75 percent of the 58 tonnes of waste generated from the three events diverted from landfill.
“Ensuring our events are as kind to the environment as possible is a big priority and we’re continuously looking for new ideas and initiatives to help us reach our zero-waste targets,” said Blackwell. “In this season’s round of events, our stallholders all use approved compostable packaging, drinks are served in recyclable cans and bottles, and all event waste is hand-sorted into the correct waste stream. At the Auckland Night Noodle Markets last December, we composted, recycled or re-used a massive 95 per cent of event waste, up from 77.9 per cent in 2017!”
Blackwell and the team are working with Clean Event waste management and supply partner Innocent Packaging to achieve another great outcome at the upcoming Wellington event, which is taking place for the first time at the capital’s iconic Basin Reserve next month.
