Croke Park Wins 2011 Green Award

In April 2011 Croke Park won the Small to Medium Enterprise Award at the Green Awards.

The Stadium was also highly commended at the 2011 Small Firms Association Awards in the category of Sustainability.
 

Croke Park Wins Stadium Business Sustainability Award 

Croke Park Stadium’s Cúl Green (Green Goal) Initiative won the Sustainability Award “…for leading the way on environmental management of stadiums globally…”

The winners of the Stadium Business Awards in association with Guinness were announced on the 18th June 2010. These are the first awards to recognise achievements in the stadium industry, all aspects of the international stadium and sports venue sector were covered.  

Croke Park Stadium is Awarded Sustainabity Management Certificaton

CrokePark has recorded a global first by becoming the world’s first stadium to receive the coveted BS 8901 certificate.

The headquarters of the GAA is now recognised as an example of best practice in the field of sustainability and will be an example for other stadiums to follow. Key aspects of the venue’s management system were deemed to be of such a standard as to allow it to become the first stadium to be certified.

The stadium will now be used as a case study as part of efforts to ensure that the 2012 London Olympics are the first fully sustainable games ever held.

The certification acknowledges excellence in event management and is audited by the international standards group, SGS Ireland. As part of this sustainability management system certification the stadium was audited under three main categories; Environment, Social and Economic.Practices scrutinised in the area of environment included recycling, reduction of carbon footprint and a reduction in energy usage and water. The social strand included health and safety, community relations, the involvement of volunteers and the contribution of a contented and committed workforce.The final area, Economic, assessed Croke Park’s best practice model in financial and legal compliance and the areas of supply chain and its management of contractors.

The certification is a significant boost to what is Europe’s fourth largest stadium and sees the stadium honoured ahead of a number of other high profile international venues.Event planners, clients, visitors, community and patrons will all benefit from the commitment made by the venue. Croke Park expects to benefit from the increasing number of national and international events that will look to add to their own sustainable credentials by running their events at Croke Park the world’s first integrated stadium and event venue to be certified. 

Croke Park Stadium is Awarded ISO 14001 Certification

SGS recently awarded Croke Park ISO 14001 certification - the International Standard for Environmental Management. 

The International Standards Organisation, ISO, is made up of representatives from 159 countries and publishes best practice standards for industry and organisations throughout the world.

The standard details the steps required for effective management of environmental issues and the continual improvement of environmental performance. By certifying Croke Park, this confirms that the company is managing environmental concerns according to the ISO 14001 Standard.

The overall purpose of achieving the ISO 14001 certification is to assist Croke Park in improved environmental performance. In order to achieve the International Standard Croke Park was required to:

• Establish an Environmental Policy.

• Identify environmental aspects of past, present, existing or planned activities to determine the environmental impacts of significance.

• Identify legal and other requirements subscribed to.

• Set appropriate environmental objectives and targets. An environmental management group (EMG) was set up, with members from the stadium, GAA and representatives from on -site contractors. In January of 2009 the EMG set objectives and targets for 2009.

• Establish a structure and programme to implement policy and achieve objectives and meet targets.

• Facilitate planning, control, monitoring, preventative and corrective actions, auditing and review activities to ensure that the policy is complied with and the environmental management system remains appropriate.

• Be capable of adapting to changing circumstances.

The success of this certification depended on the commitment from all levels and all functions within Croke Park, especially senior management. Croke Park will continue to review and evaluate its environmental management system to identify opportunities for improvement and SGS will carry out a surveillance audit in six months time to ensure continued compliance of the ISO 14001 Standard. 

Croke Park wins Repak Partnership Award 2009

 
The Repak Partnership Award is awarded to the business or organisation that has achieved outstanding results in the areas of recycling and waste management.

In 2008 Repak partnered with Croke Park to implement a recycling strategy in the stadium. A waste audit uncovered no recycling structures in place. To address the issues Repak provided recycling banks throughout the stadium, with signage directing people to the new recycling facilities. Croke Park worked closely with their contractor, Thorntons Recycling, and placed recycling compactors, plastic and cardboard baling facilities and colour coded skips in the stadium to increase recycling from input packaging, deliveries and catering. Prior to these recycling initiatives 100% of waste collected at the stadium went to landfill. As a result of the recycling implemented in Croke Park 68% of materials collected were recycled after the 2008 All Ireland final.