Here’s a round up of Pitch Focus
I’m not going to run through every detail here as a) it was a whole day event, and b) my memory won’t do it justice weeks later
Split across 3 days with 3 venues, all football stadiums, but as I said, talking about all kinds of sports pitches.
- Day 1: Old Trafford (home of Manchester United)
- Day 2: Villa Park (Aston Villa)
- Day 3: Vicarage Road (Watford)
Due to the pandemic these events haven’t been run for the last few years so it was great to get back to a face to face event.
Much of the work Syngenta and other bodies do is for golf, so it was great to spend the time for all the other turf managers.
Grass roots all the way to elite level sports pitches, private schools, race courses and universities to name but a few. We’ll be looking to do more with these groups in the future.
“The Road to a more sustainable future”
— Title of this years Pitch focus
Sustainability is going to drive change in all industries, including sports turf management so it was great to have a day to tackle such a big subject head on.
A huge thank you from me to the ICL team for putting the days together and organising everyone (which can be a challenge when there are talks to be done, and everyone would rather be starring out the window at some immaculate surfaces!).
Also very thankful to the three venues for hosting the events.
They may be used to being under the microscope from the millions of fans watching, but but its another experience entirely to have a sea of peers descend on the pitch. The surfaces were looking great and you couldn’t tell the season was almost over.
With sustainability being such a huge area it was ideal that the speakers came from such varied backgrounds as it meant a fresh angle each time.
Although all the presenters had different key points to discuss a common theme could be seen in the talks, a version of the this diagram to explain the interacting parts which come together to support sustainability.
You need it to work for all the component parts to achieve sustainability.
ICL gave two talks starting with the high level overview of what clubs can look at to begin their sustainability journey.
Highlighting research which suggests that most of a golf clubs (the research wasn’t ‘Pitch focused’ unfortunately, but we can extrapolate) carbon footprint comes from the energy and fuel they use, so these are a great place to target efforts initially.
An easy win was to consider moving to a green energy provider for electricity.
They also got more granular and presented some recent data to support products sustainable characteristics. If we are going to use inputs to help us deliver top level surfaces, it’s important we get the most out of them and ensure none is lost as waste/leaches from the root zone unused.
Phil (ICL) starting a Mexican wave to celebrate eqo.s technology.
For my talk I outlined the efforts Syngenta has already made on its sustainability journey, what its doing and what we have planned.
We know there is lots more to do, but we see it’s important to you and the wider public, so have already made efforts in this space.
- 100% renewable energy used to manufacture products
- Commitment to innovation
- Further reductions in Water use, waste generation and carbon footprint promised by 2030.
Some great talks by a machinery company and a lighting company after mine, to highlight the carbon savings that can be made by switching to electric machines from fossil fuel, and to led in some cases.
Overall it was a great series of events with some really good discussions on and off the podium. It’s clear that this section of the turf management industry is feeling pressure to become more sustainable so it’s important to start planning now.
