Supporting a Greener Croke Park
Cúl Green is a joint initiative between the GAA and Electric Ireland aimed at making Croke Park a carbon-neutral stadium. This involved putting in place a state of the art environmental improvement programme covering the stadium's electricity, waste and water management systems. The initiative has been a great success and results of fan engagement and stadium operations are detailed below.
Background
The Cúl Green initiative set ambitious targets to help Croke Park reduce its carbon footprint. In May 2009 Croke Park announced it has become one of the first net-carbon neutral stadiums in the world. The partnership between Electric Ireland and the GAA helped the stadium reduce its carbon footprint by 4,500 tonnes, reaching the standard required to deem it a carbon-neutral venue. This initial carbon saving target, covering internal stadium activities, was reached through a major overhaul of energy management at the stadium and through fans pledging reductions in their own carbon footprint.
As part of the Carbon Management Plan for the stadium, Electric Ireland engineers carried out an environmental audit to establish how Croke Park could maximise energy efficiencies and reduce its overall energy consumption. A new energy monitoring system was put in place at the stadium. The stadium also sources its electricity from a renewable source.
Fans played a crucial role in the delivery of Cúl Green’s targets. 159,175 energy saving pledges have been made to date on the Cúl Green website www.culgreen.ie. Pledges involve fans pooling their transport to and from Croke Park, using public transport, switching off lights and electrical appliances when not in use and installing enhanced energy insulation in their homes and places of work. These efficiencies were netted against the residual carbon footprint for Croke Park using a methodology accredited by an independent assessor (CRed - University of East Anglia ).
Environmental Management System
The introduction of an Environmental Management system ensured that Croke Park reduced its electricity usage since 2007 by 31% and gas usage by 29% since 2008. This reduction was made possible by the installation of a stadium wide building management system (BMS). The BMS is designed to maximise energy efficiency. This is a computerised system for centrally managing and operating energy using systems within the Stadium. The day to day electricity consumption was reduced by using the BMS to control the lighting, electrical heating and air handling units according to the scheduled activities taking place within the Stadium. Passive Infrared (PIR) lights were also introduced in some of the areas that are used on a daily basis. These lights detect motion and then activate a switch to turn on when required and off when no motion is detected after 15 minutes.
Waste Management
Croke Park diverts 62% of the waste generated on site from landfill. The weight of this material would equate to the equivalent of 7,939,130 sliotars. Facilities on-site include cardboard baling and composting of all food and grass. Recycling stations are placed on all floors in the Stadium and all staff and contractors received training. Patrons are also encouraged on event days to contribute to our waste management procedures.
Waste management processes continue to deliver and the stadium was awarded the Repak Partnership award for outstanding results in the areas of recycling and waste management.
Water Management
The rollout of solenoid valves on urinals in public levels allowed the stadium to save 370,000 litres of water on match days. The overall saving made from the introduction of these valves equates to approximately 108 olympic sized swimming pools.
Visit www.culgreen.ie or email sustainability@crokepark.ie