The Vancouver Convention Centre

About 1 million guests visit the Vancouver Convention Centre each year for about 500 events, all expertly catered by Centerplate. This venue is regularly regarded as one of the top venues in all of North America, and is the only one with the renowned Double LEED Platinum certification. 

With the popularity of green-themed events and farm-to-table catering in every industry, convention planners like to know there’s something positive regarding the environment because of the building they’re in. 

The structure’s crowning glory is six acres of green roof buzzing with four beehives that produce about 125 pounds of honey per hive. The West building’s six-acre living roof – the largest in Canada and the largest non-industrial living roof in North America – features more than 400,000 indigenous plant and grasses. The unique roof is designed to act as an insulator, reducing heat gains in the summer and heat losses in the winter. Centerplate works with the venue to incorporate output from the roof into menu items. 

Centerplate also spearheads the United We Can program, which combines a 100% diversion recycling program with job training opportunities for people with multiple barriers to traditional employment, many living in extreme poverty and often homeless. The successful program sparked a mutually beneficial relationship creating jobs, a new civic resource, and a valuable convention service. 

The UWC effort has helped maintain the goal of diverting 100% of the Center’s recyclables from landfills and into recycling centers, and Centerplate contributes more returnable containers than any other single partner.