With the new season at Cheltenham Racecourse getting underway later this week, it is announced today that the opening day of The Showcase (Friday 21st October) will have added significance as it will be known as “Showcasing Sustainability”.
Racegoers in attendance will be able to learn more about how The Jockey Club, which operates Cheltenham and 14 other UK racecourses, is maximising its efforts to help the environment and operate sustainably as a business.
The Jockey Club’s Going Green programme was launched in 2012 and the organisation has pledged to be carbon neutral by 2027. Encompassing a wide range of initiatives, the Going Green programme has seen The Jockey Club move towards the elimination of single use plastics, encourage biodiversity on its sites, sending zero waste to landfill and replacing diesel-powered vehicles on site with electric-powered vehicles wherever possible.
The Jockey Club’s Sustainability Charter sets out its vision to continue as a leader in sustainability in horseracing and across the sports sector, constantly reviewing its effect on the environment and identifying opportunities to minimise any negative impact.
For over a decade The Jockey Club has partnered with analytics specialists Stark in order to develop an energy reduction strategy and this has delivered impressive results. The initial target of a 10 per cent reduction in energy consumption was set in 2011 and soon surpassed. A new ambitious target of 25% was set in 2013 and was achieved by 2019.
Kirstin McEvoy, Sustainability and Corporate Social Values Manager at The Jockey Club, said:
“Over the past decade, The Jockey Club has made huge strides as a business in its sustainability and impact on the environment.
“Although there is always more work to be done, we are proud of what we have achieved, most notably halving our carbon emissions, and are honoured that our Going Green programme has been nominated for an RCA Award this year.
“To mark the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Going Green programme, we felt it was a good opportunity to share what we have been doing with racegoers and what better time to do it than with the start of Cheltenham’s new season.
“Our exhibition on October 21st will highlight the achievements we have made so far and also our ambitions for the future – which include an expansion in our use of solar panels, tree planting and our intention to be carbon neutral for 2027.
“At all Jockey Club venues we have a number of ‘Green Champions’ – they act as ambassadors of our Going Green programme, highlighting the steps we can all take to help the environment and sharing best practice across our racecourses and other venues. We hope that our exhibition on day one of The Showcase will demonstrate how we can all be ‘Green Champions’ – whether that be by sharing transport when we go racing to reducing food waste, there are small actions each of us can make.”
