Circadian Trust, the not-for profit organisation which operates eight leisure centres across South Gloucestershire, has been awarded a grant by Sport England worth £750,000 to implement new environmental practices and technology.
The Trust, whose headquarters are at Bradley Stoke Leisure Centre, was approached by Sport England, the public body that provides services and funding to sport in England, to help create a beacon of best practice for other leisure industry operators to aspire to.
The funds will be invested in a number of environmental resource management and energy saving initiatives across both Bradley Stoke and Yate Leisure Centres, including rainwater harvesting, LED lighting and solar voltaic cells, making it one of the greenest leisure operators in the country.
The money comes from Sport England as part of the Olympic legacy, which aims to inspire the nation to get active and more involved in sports. Sport England believes that the future of sport, whether amateur or professional, relies on top class facilities that meet up-to-the-minute requirements, including top class provisions for environmental management to encourage sustainability in sport.
Ian Jones, Director of Buildings and Environment, said:
“We’re delighted to have been awarded the grant, and even more so because we were approached by Sport England because of our existing high standards of energy and resource management, rather than the other way around. They identified us as having the potential to develop a best practice example based on what we are already doing.”
“The LED lighting alone will reduce energy usage for lighting by around 30% and the rain water harvesting will enable us to use our own natural water supplies, once properly processed, to flush toilets, supply hand basins and showers, and will even be used for topping up the swimming pool.”
The technology, infrastructure and processes implemented by Circadian Trust, which are due to be completed by August 2015, will then be used by Sport England as an example of what can be achieved to inspire and encourage other leisure and sport operators to follow suit.
The Sport England-funded changes will be supplemented by Circadian Trust’s own investment in energy management technology, including pioneering remote wifi-controlled monitoring systems, the first of its kind in the industry.
