Sustainability is at the heart of every aspect of The Kia Oval – a venue with a strong ethos of environmental consciousness and responsibility.
In every decision made, from the bottom up, the ground is proud to be playing its part in reducing the capital’s carbon footprint, helping to educate event attendees and highlighting the behaviours needed to help reduce the ground’s environmental impact.
Our efforts have not gone unnoticed with Friends of the Earth chief executive, noting that: “The Kia Oval are hitting sixes when it comes to beating plastic pollution.. Making things which are re-usable, rather than just recyclable, is key… The Kia Oval have shown that going plastic-free can be done, now we need more stadiums across the country to follow suit.”
As part of this commitment we have recently employed a Head of Sustainability to take us on our Net Zero journey. Additionally a selection of our sustainability initiatives are:
- Every drink at the ground is served in a reusable plastic, recyclable glass and ceramics, or compostable containers.
- Fourteen water fountains have been installed around the ground to allow guests to refill their own bottles.
- All electricity at the Kia Oval is generated from renewable energy.
- We have installed our own solar panels on the roof of our Galadari stand.
- All events at the ground are serviced by filtered water in reusable glass bottles that are then retained, washed and reused for future events.
- Where needed, food is served in compostable packaging and the ground has installed a comprehensive compostable waste stream, solving a problem where food waste would spoil large parts of The Kia Oval’s dry mixed recycling.
- The Kia Oval has instigated a procurement strategy focused on ensuring vendors sell products that have fully recyclable and/or compostable packaging and sustainable food sourcing.
- Kitchens at the Kia Oval use an ‘Orca’ machine which processes food waste into a liquid that be disposed of using the regular drainage system.
- The Kia Oval always seeks to partner with likeminded organisations and charities to allow us to constantly improve and innovate, including Plastic Planet.
As a result of these commitments, the Club received a Platinum Status award from EcoSmart and have won the international “Sustainability in Sports” award at the Sports Business Awards in 2021. Emily Pritchard, Head of Sustainability at Surrey CCC, commenting: “Ensuring we run our venue in the most sustainable way possible is incredibly important to everyone at the Club, so to receive recognition like this is always very gratifying.”
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Author: Sam Hyland
Sam is the assistant content manager for Event Industry News (EIN). Sam is involved in publishing news stories, videos and podcasts. Sam also collates the latest stories for the EIN e-newsletter. If you have a press release or story you think we might be interested to know about please email editor@eventindustrynews.com
