Croke Park could introduce solar panels and water harvesting in quest for net zero

A general view of Croke Park before the 2022 All-Ireland football final

For large sports stadia, achieving net zero status is no easy feat. But there are steps to be taken along the way as they keep up with deadlines in their journey to be carbon neutral.

Like many others, it is an ongoing process for Croke Park, the 82,000-capacity home of the GAA.

Already, the venue sends 0 per cent of its waste to landfill.

Other steps have been made too. Its subsidiary site in the Naul in North Dublin, where a substitute pitch is grown to replace the current Croke Park field after concerts, also has land reserved for farming, providing herbs, vegetables and honey for use in the stadium's kitchens on matchdays and for other events.

So what are the next steps in the journey?

"Definitely the solar panels. Definitely the water harvesting. There's obviously pressure on us to reach net zero. We will have to reach net zero," Croke Park operations executive Colin O'Brien told Sky Sports.

"We're doing feasibility studies at the moment to see if we could get solar power in, and what could we actually power off those solar panels, whether it's to heat water, or whether we could power the floodlights off them, whether we could run our catering units off them.

"A project we're working on at the moment is replacing all the lights in the stadium with LED bulbs, energy efficient bulbs.

"Could we get water harvesting tanks on the roof to supply our toilets? And even to supply the pitch watering and things like that? We could even use the drainage off the pitch for flushing toilets.

"We're part of the Water Stewardship Programme (run by Irish Water), we're trying to be as responsible and preserve as much water as we can."

The stadium is currently getting back to normal following the Garth Brooks concerts

Synergy among stadia in this regard is commonplace, as they work together to hit these targets.

"This worldwide stadium group, ESSMA (European stadium and safety management association), they have monthly get-togethers around Europe and the world, where they cover a different topic," O'Brien outlined.

"Sustainability is usually high on the agenda every time. They invite different stakeholders from different stadiums around the world to get together in a stadium, talk to the people about what they're doing, and just a lot of idea-sharing around turf management, around sustainability, around catering, around net zero, different things like that."

And it is not only sporting arenas working together.

"In Ireland, the Convention Centre have set up this working group around different venues and different stadia in Ireland," he continued.

"We had our first meeting a couple of weeks ago, just with key stakeholders, between ourselves, the Aviva Stadium, the Convention Centre, the Guinness Storehouse, other big venues like that, where we all talked about sustainability, what we're all doing, what we plan on doing.

"We're looking to create that networking within the industry and within Ireland, and try and meet up on a regular basis, discuss where we all want to be and what we're doing at the moment.

"It's quite a new industry and no one is an expert at it at the moment. We're all trying to learn together and share whatever wisdom we have."

The Jones' Road venue is looking to keep up with the latest trends

While some of these measures are the installation of infrastructure, other steps require constant management.

Zero-to-landfill is achieved by manpower after the match or concert.

"A lot of it is down to training. We're working closely with our waste partners...They'd give us a monthly report on all our different waste streams, the percentage going into recycling, the percentage going into compost, percentage going into SRF, which is essentially waste that can't be recycled or composted. It's burned down and made into things like cement and things like that," O'Brien detailed.

"A lot of it comes down to using sustainable products that are recyclable and compostable. We first of all try to prevent waste in the first instance, but any waste we do create should be recycled, recovered, or reused. We also ensure we dispose of items like hazardous waste and waste electrical equipment through the right channels.

"There's a lot of work on the ground that has to be done before the bags are just taken away. They're all sorted through by our cleaning contractor and our maintenance staff here as well."

As further deadlines near in the coming years, more challenges will arise. But for now, Croke Park is looking to stay ahead of the curve in the battle against climate change.

You can read about Sky Sports' action in the fight against the climate crisis here.