Sustainability is at the heart of every aspect of The Kia Oval

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Picture: Corinthian Roof Terrace

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 Craig Bennett, Friends of the Earth chief executive, noting that“The Kia Oval are hitting sixes when it comes to beating plastic pollution. Things like plastic cutlery often get used just once but can linger around for hundreds of years, polluting our oceans and environment. 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:

• Every drink at the ground is served in a reusable, 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.

• 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.

• Plastic straws and sauce sachets have not been used at the ground since 2018.

• 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 recently received a Gold Status award from Ecosmart and have Silver Green Tourism Status, with Emily Pritchard, Head of Conference and Event Sales 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.

“Although our industry has been largely suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we have continued to develop and extend our sustainability practices, and we ready for the return of event attendees and conference delegates in June, just in time for our new stand to open.”

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Adam Parry
Author: Adam Parry

Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com Adam, a technology evangelist also organises Event Tech Live, Europe’s only show dedicated to event technology and the Event Technology Awards. Both events take place in November, London.

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