OVO Hydro is the First Arena in the World to Achieve 'A Greener Arena Certification'

The OVO Hydro has achieved A Greener Arena (AGA) certification for its commitment to sustainability. That’s huge news because we are the first arena in the world to do so!

AGA is awarded by A Greener Festival (AGF), a not-for-profit company who have spent the last 15 years helping events, festivals and venues around the world – including massive festivals like Glastonbury, Primavera and Roskilde Festival – to reduce their environmental impact.

We had a chat with Jennifer Ennis, Environment and Waste Manager at the Scottish Event Campus, to find out what it takes to be 'A Greener Arena'. 
 

What does it mean to achieve A Greener Arena certification?

A Greener Arena is now setting the standard on sustainable arenas so to be the first venue in the world to achieve the award is brilliant! The award assessment is incredibly comprehensive and it covers a lot of areas we are already working to improve – energy, waste, environmental protection, carbon, water and green travel. So it is a brilliant way to complement our Sustainability Strategy we have in place.

How has the OVO Hydro implemented positive environmental change?

The biggest recent change has been the move to a reusable cup for live events at the OVO Hydro.  We have replaced single use plastic cups with a reusable and sustainable alternative, which will help us save 2 million plastic cups per year, reducing our carbon footprint by 1,500 tonnes in the next 10 years. A key part of our journey towards net zero.

What are the sustainability plans for the future?

We recently launched our Sustainability Strategy. The strategy covers our 5 key goals: Climate, People, Partnership, Resource and Governance. There are specific targets under each goal, some of the key highlights are our commitment to be Net Zero by 2030, eliminating single use plastic cups for live events and our campus wide sustainable food strategy, where a minimum of 80% of all ingredients are sourced in Scotland as well as reducing food waste to below 1%.

How can fans attending OVO Hydro events get involved?

Every one of our visitors can support our sustainability strategy – by using green or active travel, ensuring that our reusable Stack-Cups are returned so they can be washed and reused and by being careful not to litter outside our venues. We have in place a Sustainable Visitor Charter which outlines how visitors can support our Sustainability Strategy, this is on our website and is displayed on our screens. If our visitors read and implemented the small changes where possible, it would make an enormous difference.

Find out more about sustainability at the OVO Hydro by clicking here.