2009 electricity savings at Croke Park

01 Feb 2010

While the public have been playing their part in helping us make Croke Park carbon neutral by making over 65,000 carbon saving pledges in the last eighteen months the Cúl Green Team within Croke Park has been busy delivering on their targets.

The ESB and GAA have put in place a state of the art environmental-improvement programme covering Croke Park's electricity, waste and water management systems. This Environmental engineering work resulted in the stadium receiving its ISO Certification in May 2009. The new system has allowed Croke Park to use 11.7% less electricity in 2009 compared to 2008.

The energy saving was achieved by implementing the recommendations of an energy audit which was carried out in June 2008 to identify options for energy savings. It involved putting in place energy monitoring and improving the overall control of energy usage through a Building Management System.

As part of the ISO Certification Croke Park must maintain high standards - “We were required to establish an environmental policy, identify environmental aspects of past present, existing or future activities to determine the environmental impacts of significance, set appropriate environmental objectives and targets, establish a structure and programme to implement policy and to achieve the set objectives and targets,” said Stadium Director, Peter McKenna.

The Energy Monitoring System was completed and commissioned in December 2008 and involved rewiring of electrical circuits, installation of meters and installation of energy monitoring software. The Operations Team in the Stadium now has continuous access to the real-time electricity consumption within the Stadium allowing them to identify areas of the Stadium where there is non-essential use of electricity.

As well as the decrease in electricity usage the Cúl Green Team in Croke Park put in place Waste Management systems which have resulted in 48% of Stadium waste being diverted from landfill to recycling, reuse and composting in 2009. This is compared to 21% of waste that was diverted from landfill during the same period in 2008.

To retain ISO certification, Croke Park will have to regularly review its various activities to ensure that the policy is being complied with, and that the environmental management system remains appropriate, as Peter McKenna outlined: “An auditor will visit the site and inspect all documentation and the site itself to ensure you are fully compliant with ISO requirements. ISO 14001:2004 also requires you to demonstrate continual improvement.”

These improvements plus the pledges made by fans means that we are well on our way to making Croke Park carbon neutral by 2014.

If you would like to play your part in making Croke Park carbon neutral please register and make a carbon saving pledge today.

Many thanks for your continued support.

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