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21/04/2023

Earth Day 2023

Each year, April 22nd is designated World Earth Day but in Croke Park, we're mindful that every day is Earth Day. Our sustainable story began over 15 years ago with a focus on improving our energy and waste management efficiency in the stadium.

Along the way, we've added & continued to build water, biodiversity, and local community programmes, and we were so proud to become the first stadium in the world to reach the highest environmental standard the ISO 14001 in 2015. We've also achieved the ISO 20121 standard, which is the international standard for the management of sustainable events and we're currently working towards ISO 50001 in Energy Management.

We continue to reach these highest standards each year through audits and re-certifications. The ISO standards are important to us as they provide us with a platform for continuous improvement in all our sustainable and environmental programmes.

Today, for World Earth Day, we are sharing just some of the latest 'improvements' to the stadium that you'll be able to see or use next time you visit.

Growing Native

Anyone arriving at the stadium on the Cusack side will be delighted to see the beautiful landscaped area of the carpark opposite the GAA Handball Centre. Local resident and member of the Croke Park community Aonghus O'Briain, is a very talented landscape gardener and has recently worked his green-fingered magic on several spaces across the stadium and our local community area. Not only does Aonghus work with the native Irish plants, trees, and flowers; he also picks spaces that provide an ideal habitat for multiple species of birds and insects throughout the year.

Also in the Cusack carpark, keep an eye out for our bird boxes and bird feeders! We have swift boxes built into the walls of the new handball centre and at the back of Hill 16 also, we're delighted to be able to give swifts a home in this urban environment.

If you'd like to learn more, the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan has tips on how to create food sources and habitat for bees and other pollinators in your home www.pollinators.ie

Still Watching our Waste

We're doing our best here at the stadium to eliminate single-use plastics and we are putting plans in place to tackle this waste and environmental issues. As part of this, we are encouraging all fans and visitors to bring their own reusable water bottles and coffee cups. There are 30 state-of-the-art water bottle filling-points now installed throughout the stadium as part of our waste-reduction policy.

For the last 9 years, we have proudly maintained a zero waste to landfill policy & each year, our waste focus is continuing to decrease the overall amount of waste, as well as red bin waste we generate.

"Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean."

Behind all these projects and campaigns is the stadium's environment and sustainability management group who, each year set out an ambitious set of objectives, to deliver against both our environmental and sustainability policies. Their hard work and passion for what they do continues to make a difference in ways you can see and more often, in ways that are not so obvious throughout the stadium.

Since 2019, their work has been backed up by the stadiums very own 'Green Team'. This team is made up of stadium and GAA staff, who volunteer their time learning more about the environment and sustainability, as well as supporting and organising events and activities in the stadium to encourage environmental awareness and sustainable behavioural change.

Check out here to see how you can get involved for World Earth Day 2023.