Sustainability
Here at the Royal Air Force Charitable Trust Enterprises, we recognise that, in our day-to-day operations, our business impacts the environment in many ways. We are determined to make clear, measurable and positive changes to the way we work, to do the right thing. We are aware that these changes will not happen overnight and we want to ensure that we make real lasting improvements to the way we work.
To read our sustainability policy in full click here
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Food/Water
In 2023 we joined forces with catering company Togather, who provide a variety of catering offerings including vegetarian and vegan. In addition to that, they’re also committed to using biodegradable packaging with all of their venders!
Our Airfield Diner, which feeds all our volunteers and visiting aircrew across show week is run in partnership with Relish, who provide locally sourced and seasonal ingredients. Over a two-week period they prepare around 60,000 meals in the on-site kitchen.
In addition, Relish will be offering a 10% discount for visitors to the Wingtip Garden, Flight Deck and Cotswold Club enclosures on their coffee, up to 16oz, if they bring a re-usable cup.
Every year we provide free water to our visitors. At last year’s show we installed water bowsers across the showground, totalling to an amazing 120,000 litres which is enough to fill almost 25,000 watering cans.
Free water will be available every year and we encourage people to bring re-fillable water bottles with them when they visit.
Exhibits
On the showground we are encouraging all our sponsors and exhibitors to showcase the technology they are developing to make aviation more sustainable.
This includes sustainable aircraft and interactive exhibits and activities in the Techno Zone and the RAF’s Astra exhibit.
As an event which welcomes roughly 150,000 people a year, we are a prime opportunity for people to showcase their developments to the public and because of this, we’re excited to see what we can deliver in the coming years.
Waste
Waste management represents a crucial part of our sustainability aspirations. That's why, with the help of our partners MJ Church, we aim to recycle as much of our waste as possible, with all of it diverted from landfill.
They do this by segregating our waste streams on site, sorting the recycling off-site before taking the residual waste for energy where it is recovered as electricity. Any food waste is taken to an anaerobic digestion plant.
Equipment/Power/Fuel
As a greenfield site, it takes a tremendous amount of effort to prepare the airfield to host the Royal International Air Tattoo.
We are presented with issues such as providing our own power to the site to make sure the event runs smoothly.
In turn, this means we need a lot of equipment to make it happen. Our Ground Operations team, who start building the site a month before the doors open to the public work tirelessly to ensure we use hybrid generators or mains power wherever possible. Where this isn't achievable, we use generators that run on 100% hydrotreated vegetable oil fuel.
