Green Apple Awards Entry 2023 - Ascot

Ascot Racecourse enters the Green Apple Awards for environmental best practise.

Ascot Racecourse is the home of Royal Ascot, one of the world’s most prestigious race meetings, attended by some 300,000 people over a five-day period each June. Annually, the racecourse also hosts more than 20 race-days, alongside numerous non-racing events.

The following Green Apple Awards entry for 2023 showcases the achievements and progress made in regards to waste management, recycling and sustainability from 2022 v 2023.

Total Team Collaboration

The achievements and progress made for the award entry on behalf of Ascot Racecourse comes as a result of total venue stakeholder collaboration, focusing on the goal of improving sustainability across the entire venue operation.

The Green Apple Awards submission has been put together in partnership with the following teams:

  • Ascot Racecourse

  • Sodexo Live!

  • Grundon Waste Management

  • Rockvolt

The Project Aim

Sustainability is a year-round priority; including reducing emissions, cutting energy usage, reducing the amount of materials coming onto site and increasing recycling – together with a clear Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) mandate.

Hospitality is managed by 1711 by Ascot, a joint venture between Ascot Racecourse and Sodexo Live, including on-site catering and fine dining. In 2022, Ascot Racecourse put its waste and recycling contract out to tender. It was won by Grundon Waste Management, experts in total waste management.

Working together, with support from sustainability consultancy Rockvolt, the following targets were set.

  • To achieve 50% recycling at Royal Ascot by end year two (June 2023)

  • Achieve net zero within the new Village Enclosure

  • Identify opportunities/provide solutions to improve recycling/reduce waste

  • To promote to racegoers the benefits of sustainable practices

  • Increase employee/contractor education

  • Improve waste education with external suppliers (on-site vendors etc)

  • Ensure compliance with legislation

  • Provide data to demonstrate waste success and help set future waste goals

The Project Achievements

The comparison between Royal Ascot week in June 2022 and June 2023 was the focus of the award entry. In the span of just one year, Royal Ascot has taken substantial steps towards environmental responsibility. Notable improvements include the introduction of new recycling signage and posters, which not only enhance the visibility of recycling points but also educate attendees about proper waste disposal. Additionally, waste education training has been implemented to further enlighten both staff and visitors on the importance of sustainable waste management.

One particularly innovative addition is the sorting table, which has been introduced to facilitate the efficient sorting of waste into the correct waste streams. This not only streamlines the recycling process but also reduces contamination, ultimately contributing to a more eco-friendly event. Sustainability champions from the Village Enclosure now actively engage with the public, creating a positive ripple effect by encouraging responsible waste practices among attendees.

Behind the scenes, Royal Ascot has also enhanced its eco-credentials with the installation of new back-of-house glass bottle banks, encouraging staff and vendors to recycle glass bottles effectively. Furthermore, the addition of more on-site compactors demonstrates a commitment to minimising vehicle movements, reducing the event's carbon footprint, and optimising waste collection logistics. These actions helped deliver the following main achievements.

  • > Overall recycling rate 55% - up from 35% in 2022 - exceeding target

  • > Village Enclosure on track for net zero through significant reduction and absorption, carbon emissions anticipated to be nearly 50% less

  • > Recycling up 55.6% from 135,355 kgs to 210,725 kgs

  • > Extra 450 waste containers

  • > Biggest improvements:

    • > Food waste now segregated, previously sent to Energy from Waste (EfW), up from 2,800 kgs to 25,460 kgs – increase of 809%

    • > Glass recycling up 35.6% from 90,860 kgs to 123,220 kgs

    • > General waste (non-recyclable) down 27.5% from 243,060 kgs to 176,250 kgs and sent to EfW

    • > Roadsweeper waste collections introduced in 2023 = 12,265 kgs of mixed recycling waste

  • > Electric vehicles used for waste collections, vehicles powered at Grundon’s EfW, which generates electricity from customer waste

  • > Royal Ascot June 2023:

    • > 126,560 kgs of CO2 saved

    • > Equivalent to planting 641 trees

    • > 2,089 MWh of power generated

Key Stakeholder Comments

As Head of Soft Services (Sodexo), Keith Field oversees waste management, working with Peter Watts from Rockvolt, a specialist consultancy for stadia, venues and events.

Peter says: “With Grundon, we saw an organisation that wanted to work with us, to challenge us rather than just do what we wanted. They came up with solutions that enabled us to start pushing boundaries, they understood what could be achieved, and have continued to demonstrate new ways of working that exceeded our goals.”

Building on its experience of managing waste at Royal Ascot 2022 (just two months after winning the contract), the Grundon team considered new measures for 2023.

Grundon’s Shaun Workman, says: “Royal Ascot is the jewel in the racing calendar crown and we worked hard to identify where improvements could be made. As the racecourse employs its own cleaning teams, we knew one of the priorities was waste education, making sure people understood why segregating waste is so important for successful recycling. Spending time with managers and teams, we were able to implement big changes across the hospitality areas, kitchens and vendor stalls.”

This included:

  • > Grundon redesigning waste posters to demonstrate which waste goes into which bins

  • > Participation in waste education/training sessions for managers/cleaning staff/vendors

  • > Restaurants offered nightly bin swaps, ensuring clean bins for food preparation waste

  • > Introduction of a dedicated sorting table (back-of-house in the Village Enclosure)

  • > A Grundon team on-site throughout

Keith Field said: “Education has been one of the biggest drivers of our recycling success this year. We attended briefings for managers and back-of-house teams and it was clear that correct segregation of waste had been taken on board, which was down to Shaun and the Grundon team.

This was the first time we had tried to achieve net zero for a large enclosure and Shaun and Chris’ aspirations were far greater than ours. It was a real learning curve to see what could be done and the results that could be achieved.”

Images from Grundon

Measuring Food Waste

Previously, food which could not be redistributed had gone into general waste, increasing disposal costs by an average £40 per tonne and making it almost impossible to monitor accurately. Grundon’s new segregation methods meant food waste could be properly measured for the first time, resulting in 25,460 kgs of food waste being sent to Anaerobic Digestion facilities for processing into bio-fertiliser and electricity.

Keith says: “Without being able to measure food waste we would never have known how much there was. We see this as a positive because it has given us a target for the future. We have already asked catering outlets to record exactly what food waste they are throwing out, to look at menus and record the most/least popular dishes etc. We are asking questions such as ‘is the salad bowl too big’, it is about learning lessons and not being wasteful, whilst also ensuring that patrons are well served with the food they enjoy.”

Since 2017, Royal Ascot has donated surplus food to the charity City Harvest. In 2023, 2.11 tonnes of food was provided, equating to 5,026 meals delivered.

Collections

No waste vehicle movements were allowed during the day, meaning all Grundon waste collections took place in evenings and early mornings. Drivers operated the compactors in the service yards, returning daily to deposit non-recyclable waste into Grundon’s EfW facility.

This creates electricity which powers Grundon’s own electric waste collection vehicle (it plugs into the EfW), leaving a further 2,820kW of electricity for daily export to the National Grid.

Costs & Net Zero

Waste disposal costs (especially for the Village Enclosure) have gone down as the amount of general waste has been reduced and recycling has increased.

Achieving net zero carbon in the Village Enclosure

Although we’re still waiting for full statistics, Peter Watts says the Enclosure will achieve net zero status, with any residual carbon emissions offset via a UK certified carbon offsetting programme.

He says: “Measuring the data is key. We achieved net zero for one restaurant last year and worked out that if it had been run ‘normally’ we would have doubled carbon usage. We have run the same forecasts for the Enclosure this year, including Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, and would expect similar results. Having data from Grundon is such an important component of the information we need.”

Future Plans

  • Ongoing data exercise to see how much waste each enclosure generates

  • Production (led by Grundon) of a training video about waste, to be incorporated into mandatory staff training

  • Waste success stories from the Village Enclosure to be implemented across other areas

Further notes:

Ascot Racecourse is a member of BASIS (the British Association for Sustainable Sport) and a signatory to the UN Sports for Climate Action Initiative, which has five principles including promoting greater environmental responsibility and promoting sustainable and responsible consumption.

Waste management aside, activities have included utilising electricity from renewable sources, planting wildflowers for biodiversity and making compost to reduce reliance on chemicals and fertilisers. No enforcement action has been taken against Ascot Racecourse.