by Eleonora Anello
The media of all the world, especially those dealing with environment, presented them as environmental friendly. But the wedding celebrated on Friday, April 29, 2011 between the Prince William and Kate Middleton have been so attentive to the environment?
Apart from the rivers of ink that have been paid to obtain the maximum media coverage, we start from the crowds of London. The long wait has produced a flood of waste into sugar-coated almonds, flags and food consumed, so it took a team of 130 people to collect 140 tons of rubbish left. Perhaps less impact, the 2 billion of people not physically present, who have followed the ceremony in front of the TV or computer.
It’s likely that the press has given too much credit to the proverb: "Like father, like son". And Prince Charles, in fact, seems to have been the only member of the Royal Family who didn’t disappoint the environmental expectations. So, he was able to impose sustainability on the wedding party in which they were served "zero-miles" food and biological canapés, with ingredients coming from his farms. The bride and groom on their side were concerned to print menu and press kits on FSC certified recycled paper.
The ecofriendly choices are then involved the floral arrangements thanks to Shane Connolly, floral designer from the sustainable approach, made of plants and seasonal flowers from organic farming, which prefers potted plants rather than cut flowers.
Even for the rings they gave priority to re-use. For the engagement, Prince William has recycled the ring with sapphire and diamond ring that his father gave to Diana, a gift symbolically very powerful. The gold of the wedding ring, gift from Queen Elizabeth, came from UK mines. Still on the subject of reuse, Kate’s dress was decorated with jewels in part on loan again from the Queen.
To reduce the environmental footprint also the guests were bothered. They could choose to make donations to thirty organizations, including some dedicated to protecting the environment, avoiding unnecessary gifts. In addition, the newlyweds have asked them to plant trees to offset CO2 emissions, more than a little irrelevant as they are from all over the world will fly in most cases private.
So the media are focused on these particulars that if compared to everything else appear to be marginal. Only The Telegraph has expressed criticism of the management of the environmental impact by publishing a rough calculation of the carbon footprint of the international event, carried out by Landcare Research. The results are devastating for the environment. The CO2 generated from the ceremony is the total produced by Buckingham Palace in a whole year. There is around 6765 tons of CO2, 12 times the annual emissions from the palace in London, 1230 times the annual emissions of an average English family.
We can console with the fact that the green choices are not confined to the day when the royal couple gave their yes. The house of 789 square meters in the countryside of Cornwall where William and Kate will live, will be highly energy efficient in part using renewable sources.
Although some choices reward the Royal Family, also the communication of the event didn’t fully respect the most basic sustainable principles. Low impacting the announcement of the engagement on Twitter and Facebook and the sending of the first invitation to the crowned heads by fax, evidently considered more effective by the Windsor for passing information on major events and certainly much more environmental friendly then the invitations printed on paper and adorned with gold delivered in 1900 invited the following month.
Judge for yourself if you can talk about a green wedding or a glitzy show in which the respect for the environment has had a contained part. We recognize the merit of the Royal Family that have mobilized a lot of money for this global event that triggered mass-appeal, seeking to promote exemplary environmental and giving visibility to some best practices that will leave intangibles and materials legacy for the environment. One thing is certain, though less glamorous, the common marriages are much more environmental friendly.
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