Twickenham Stadium continues to prioritise environmental sustainability with the ongoing threat of man-made climate change. The last year has seen the organisation commence the 2050 net zero corporate strategy planning which will contribute to the required global climate action and ensure a continued sustainable pathway for the RFU.
Twickenham Stadium has driven a significant reduction in operational energy consumption through improving system performance, retro-fitting energy efficient solutions, shutting down utilities in unoccupied areas and extensive staff and contractor education.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a limited number of spectator events taking place at the stadium, the focus on waste improvements has continued. The stadium has operated under a "Zero waste to landfill policy" for the last 7 years. This is achieved by all of the stadiums food waste being composted using an anaerobic digestion unit that produces both electricity and fertiliser, additionally, all recyclables are sent to state of the art recycling plant operated by Grundon for recycling. Any waste that is unsuitable for recycling is incinerated to provide energy back to the National Grid.
In partnership with Levy UK, 95% of our food is now prepared and cooked onsite using at least 80% British ingredients and all cooking oil recycled.
Controls implemented in recent years have continued, including meeting the International Standards Organisation ISO 20121 for sustainable event management, the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme and Energy Saving Opportunity Scheme.
Health & Wellbeing
- We clearly show all allergens and ingredients in our food at the point of consumption using a dedicated digital reference guide.
- We encourage and help our teams to live a healthy lifestyle with sensible hours of work and providing the team healthy food.
- Our ambition is to promote and support mental health for our colleagues. The team all have access to both professional and colleague led mental health toolkits, resources and webinars.
- We encourage our team and guests to cycle to the stadium and provide over 100 secure bike racks.
Our approach to food
- Twickenham Stadium's menus are designed to take into consideration a food waste strategy that includes an innovative internal 'circular economic model' that maximises every ingredient, reduces food miles and tracks the source, multiple use and outcome of every ingredient used on the menu.
- Our menus use a minimum of 80% British season fruit and vegetables.
- When we use beef, we only use outdoor reared British grass fed beef. We have set a target to reduce the stadiums use of beef by 50% by the end of 2022.
- All our fish is MSC grades 1-3.
- High welfare British poultry and pork and free range eggs are used as standard.
- 25% of our menus are already plant-based, vegan or vegetarian. See our Pledge for more veg here.
Reducing our impact on the environment
- We have no plastic straws, stirrers or sauce sachets within the venue.
- "Zero waste to landfill policy" for the last 7 years.
- The stadium is BS20121 Event Sustainability accredited.
- Single use plastics have been reduced by 80% with the target increasing incrementally on an annual basis.
- The Twickenham Marriott hotel is Green Key accredited, demonstrating the establishments' efforts to develop an environmental friendly, sustainable and responsible business.
- 7 electric car charging units are available for use of guests of the stadium.
Reduced energy consumption
- Excess heat is recovered for space heating and hot water generation
- Solar panels have been installed to power the South Stand
- Twickenham was the first stadium in the UK to have 100% LED spotlights and our floodlights use 35% less energy per fitting compared to traditional systems
- Stadium waste is either recycled or energy recovery is performed, which removes the CO2 emission. The stadiums waste has generated 56.44 MWh of electricity in the past year.
Twickenham in the community
- England Rugby and the RFU have installed solar panels at a local primary school saving hundreds of kilogrammes of carbon, saving the school money in the process.
- In conjunction with a local school, an eco-classroom has been built.
- We helped to install a green wall at St Stephen's Primary School to improve air quality for children.
- Together with the Metropolitan Police we have installed a community garden at a local youth centre.
- Any unusable food is regularly donated to surplus food redistribution charities, City Harvest and The Felix Project.
