Sustainability

When the Stadium was built to host the 1999 Rugby World Cup matches, managing the overall environmental impact of an event was not high on the agenda.

Background

Formal planning for the £121million project began in 1994 and a new 74,500 capacity stadium was created from 56,000 tonnes of concrete and steel.

The Stadium has the UK’s first and largest fully-retractable roof and a unique palletised pitch system which transforms the sports venue into a multi-event arena.

After more than 10 years, over 300 major events and 10 million visitors, however, many of the stadium’s systems, dating back to the early 1990s, were identified as non-sustainable.

The stadium needed to implement a sustainability policy to demonstrate sound environmental practice, reduce its carbon footprint and build for a better future.