Wembley do the hard yards on sustainability

Image: Coliseum GSVA

The Wembley Stadium in Wembley, London (UK) has introduced its own sustainability rider following in the footsteps of the other London venues – the 20,000-capacity The O2 in Greenwich, London, and the 5,272-capacity Royal Albert Hall in London, England.

‘IQ’ stated that the rider outlines the role sustainability plays within the stadium’s operations alongside advice and guidance for all the organizations, the promoters and the touring artistes that host the events at the venue.

The 90,000-capacity Wembley Stadium (sometimes referred to as The New Wembley and branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is an association football stadium in Wembley, London (UK). It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium which had stood from 1923 until 2003.

‘IQ’ further stated that it also outlines considerations and recommendations for more sustainable choices to reduce the environmental impact of the live events.

The 90,000-capacity stadium already works closely with the bands and promoters to implement Green initiatives. Recently, Coldplay (British rock band) revealed all of their Wembley shows in 2025 will be 100 percent powered via solar, wind and kinetic energy collected at the venue and elsewhere in the United Kingdom – a world first for a stadium show.

Maintained Mark Lynch, Wembley Stadium Director, “Sustainability, and reducing the impact of large events, is integral to our ambition to provide a world-leading, inspirational venue. This new sustainability rider sets out our vision and values. It will act as a conversation starter with the artistes, the promoters and the event owners to see how we can work together to make a positive impact on the environment and the local community around us.”

The new rider, which was created through consultation with the environmental professionals, forms part of The Football Association’s (FA’s) overall sustainability strategy.

London (UK)-based The Football Association or The FA is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the amateur and professional game in its territory.

Remarked Ruaidhri Dunn, The FA’s Head of Procurement and Sustainability, “We are very proud of our achievements in recent years to continually improve how we embed sustainability, including the Wembley Stadium maintaining the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 20121 standard for sustainable events management. However, we want to make further progress. This new sustainability rider will enable us to move forward with the next phase of our sustainability efforts.”

Geneva (Switzerland)-based the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an independent, non-Governmental, international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of the member-countries.

The ISO 20121 is a voluntary international standard for sustainable event management created by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The standard aims to help organizations improve sustainability throughout the entire event management cycle.

Last year, The FA launched its ‘Playing for the Future’ strategy to drive forward its environmental ambitions up until 2028.

Central to that plan was reducing the environmental impact of the Wembley Stadium with a clear focus on reducing energy consumption, avoiding waste, improving recycling rates, reducing water consumption, and positively impacting the stakeholders.

Continue to follow Coliseum for latest updates on venues business news. Coliseum is dedicated towards building the best global community of sports and entertainment venue executives and professionals creating better and more profitable venues.

Become a member of the only Global Sports Venue Alliance and connect with stadiums, arenas and experts from around the world. Apply for membership at coliseum-online.com/alliance and make use of the 365Coliseum Business.

• Tags »
• sustainability rider
• Wembley

« Previous News: Bursting-at-seams crowd in MLS stadia