Aviva Stadium Leading The Field in Energy

Efficiency

The Aviva Stadium is a joint enterprise between the Football Association of Ireland and the Irish Rug-

by Football Union. Recognising the need for a home to both Rugby and Football in Ireland the stadi-

um was built on the site of the old Lansdowne Road ground. Officially opened in May 2010 it is rated

as one of the best stadiums in Europe; currently holding a coveted Category 4 rating with the Union of

European Football Associations.

Boasting an all seated capacity of 51,700 people and situated directly in the middle of the city the

Aviva Stadium is home to events, conferences, concerts and elite sporting events that other venues

can only be envious of.

There are 18 staff em-

ployed in the manage-

ment of the stadium and

over 1000 staff catering

to the safety and needs of

patrons on match days.

In charge of the day to

day operations are

Eamonn Williams, Facili-

ties Manager and Aidan

Byrne, Maintenance Of-

ficer, who promoted inter-

nally and initiated the pro-

cess of certification of the

stadium to ISO 50001 En-

ergy Management Sys-

tems.

While the stadium is now 4

years old and was a state of the art building when completed, Eamonn and Aidan soon found that

there was room for improvement. Aidan Byrne details some of their issues here;

“The designer’s main priority was to create a stadium to cater for 50,000 plus people on a match day.

Conferences, events, meetings and other such activities were of secondary importance in the design

philosophy but are an equally important part of our business.”

Within months of opening it was apparent that the energy costs were greater than expected and ac-

tion was required. An energy management system seemed like the best solution. Eamonn Williams

had previous experience in the field of energy management so he championed the cause from within

the organisation. He explains just how Aviva Stadium became the first stadium in the world to be cer-

tified to the ISO 50001 standard.

Certification ISO 50001

The Aviva Stadium, nestled in the heart of Dublin

ISO 50001 Energy Management Certification can be adapted to any size of organisation

Eamon explains what promoted the Aviva Stadium to first seek out an ISO 50001 certification;

“The Aviva Stadium’s energy consumption was massive coming towards the end of the first year of opera-

tion. Throughout my career I have been involved in energy management. Having to control expenditure on

electrical, gas and oil in business premises is nothing new for example; ships engineers have been manag-

ing energy for hundreds of years.

ISO 50001 had just been published and we decided to implement it in our stadium, with the hope of be-

coming the world’s first sports stadium. Had we known how difficult it would have been we would have

thought twice! Now that the implementation process is complete we are delighted to have a certified ISO

50001 energy management system.”

The ISO 50001 Energy Management Systems framework can be adapted to any size of organisation or

business. Helping to foster a culture of conservation in your organisation is key to making significant ener-

gy savings.

Eamonn explains how their energy management system works alongside their businesses goals;

“We liked the fact this standard could be scaled and adapted to suit the business. It has increased energy

awareness throughout our organisation. Energy efficiency has improved without reducing the quality of

the product. Customer experience is paramount.”

“We liked the fact this standard could be scaled and adapted to suit the business. It

has increased energy awareness throughout our organisation. Energy efficiency has

improved without reducing the quality of the product. Customer experience is para-

mount”

The Aviva Stadium, home to Irish Football, Rugby and countless elite sporting and cultural events.

The Benefits of an Energy Management Certification, The Triple Bottom Line

An energy management system has fringe benefits that many organisations do not consider.

Aidan Byrne explains some of the major benefits of their energy management system;

“We found that the ISO 50001 Energy Management System brought us benefits in three main areas: eco-

nomic, environmental and social, the triple bottom line.

From an economic point of view, had we continued to consume energy at 2010 levels, we would have in-

curred an extra €1 Million in our energy spend by January 2014.

Our environmental impact has been severely reduced; we have saved over 4500 tonnes of CO2 from en-

tering the atmosphere.

Energy awareness amongst staff has improved. Staff have been educated in how to reduce their own en-

ergy bills at home which has fostered a culture of intelligent energy consumption in work. This reinforces

the idea that if we are a sustainable business, then job security is improved.”

Eamonn details how

he feels that the Aviva

Stadium’s energy man-

agement system gives

them an edge over

their competitors, both

here in Ireland and

throughout the world.

“It (ISO 50001) has

really enhanced our

reputation and helped

us grow our market

share in the events

sector. This enabled us

to bid for the Euro 2020

football tournament and we are delighted to have been selected to host 4 games in the upcoming champi-

onships. Large sporting bodies like UEFA or other blue chip companies are now starting to look for these

kind of certifications. These large organisations want to preserve their “Green” supply chain. Third party

certification gives us a competitive advantage. At the moment certifications are advantageous but in the

future these will be prerequisites when bidding for major tournaments or events with large organisations.

As a landmark building we are influencers and I feel that it is important for us to lead by example. We are

‘best practise’. At the recent Green Sports Alliance conference in the USA, I found our system to be as

good or better than most. From an energy management perspective we are well ahead.”

“Our ISO 50001 Certification has really enhanced our reputation and helped us grow

our market share in the events sector. This enabled us to bid for the Euro 2020

football tournament and we are delighted to have been selected to host 4 games in

the upcoming championships. Large sporting bodies like UEFA or other blue chip

companies are now starting to look for these kind of certifications.

A truly landmark building

“Certification Europe helped us to identify our SEUs (significant energy users) and

explained how to do an energy review. As part of the gap analysis the auditor

flagged a couple of key things that we had failed to do. The auditor was very ap-

proachable and made us feel that the gaps identified were not insurmountable.

With the support that Certification Europe and SEAI gave us the entire implemen-

tation process was less daunting.”

.

Regulatory changes, energy audits and ISO 50001 energy management training

Regulatory changes have also seen the Aviva Stadium’s ISO 50001 system gain new significance. From

2015 all large energy users in Ireland will have to have a mandatory energy audit, once every four years.

Eamonn says that Aviva Stadium’s certified ISO 50001 energy management system means that they al-

ready comply in full with this new requirement.

Implementing a brand new energy management standard was quite an undertaking. Certification Europe

provided training on the ISO 50001 standard and this was the first port of call for the Aviva Stadium.

Eamonn explains just how Certification Europe has helped the Aviva stadium;

“Certification Europe were one of the first businesses to offer an energy management systems implemen-

tation course. This helped to raise our awareness of the standard and really whetted our appetite.

From there Certification Europe’s energy experts performed a gap analysis and helped us to understand

various requirements of the standard.

Certification Europe helped us to identify our SEUs (significant energy users) and explained how to do an

energy review. As part of the gap analysis the auditor flagged a couple of key things that we had failed to

do. The auditor was very approachable and made us feel that the gaps identified were not insurmounta-

ble. With the support that Certification Europe and SEAI gave us the entire implementation process was

less daunting.”

The Aviva Stadium, as seen from London Bridge

Key Learning from the ISO 50001 Energy Management Implementation

Despite being a state of the art stadium, it did however lack the basics in energy management infra-

structure, only one electrical meter and one gas meter made monitoring quite difficult Aidan explains

their experiences;

“You can imagine trying to work out what our significant energy users were without sub-metering. We

were using tabulated information. With only a single electricity meter and a single gas meter we couldn't

do anything. We did the best that we could with planned schedules and other data sets but since then

we have introduced a massive sub-metering program.

We have over 150 electrical metres now, 6 heat metres and 3 extra gas sub-meters. We have fantastic

transparency. This cost to install this system was a relatively insignificant figure when you compare it to

the cost of building the stadium, or to our energy bills, and it has allowed us to manage our energy us-

age more effectively.”

Looking forward from an Energy Management point of view the Aviva Stadium has big plans for the fu-

ture. They would like to generate as much of their energy as possible from renewable sources. They are

participating in the DSU (Demand Side Unit) programme and are capable of exporting energy onto the

national grid.

The ISO 50001 certification process has been an educational experience. As an organisation they have

learned to implement an effective management system that can be used for other business functions

such as sustainable event management, environmental and health and safety management. Eamonn ex-

plains some of his key learnings from the ISO 50001 project;

“Using ISO standards for various functions at the venue creates a natural synergy between key business

areas such as energy and sustainability and the achievement of a quality approach to their management.

The ISO 50001 energy management system lets us dovetail other standards in really fast. They dovetail

into the energy management infrastructure and we hope to have an ISO 20121 system in quite soon.

When it comes to any of the other ISO standards they dovetail right in there”

Implementing the standard may prove to be difficult for those who are inexperienced in reading ISO

standards. Aidan offers this advice;

“Look for expert advice. Look around for people who have implemented

these systems before and experts in the area and get in touch with them. For

us the SEAI and Certification Europe really did help us understand and get to

grips with the language and concepts in the ISO 50001 standard.”

Both Eamonn and Aidan were in agreement that the availability of resources

and management support is key to successful implementation. Eamonn said;

“I have been in various different positions in businesses where organisations

have given energy management lip service. We have excellent support from

senior management. They believe in the benefits and are involved in the

month to month development of our system.”

Whilst Aidan had these final words of advice;

“If you are thinking about trying to implement an ISO 50001 system I would stress the question, ‘Do you

have the resources available?’. Man power, time, available workload, money, expertise are all needed. If

you are trying to achieve the level of third party certification, you need to have enough resources in

place”

This video shows the constructions of the Aviva stadium in the heart of Dublin