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10 Nov 2022
The Jockey Club pipped Newmarket Racecourse and Ripon Racecourse to the post by winning the Racing Foundation Green Award at the Racecourse Association Showcase awards that took place at Pontefract Racecourse on November 10.
Going Green 2022 was the name of the Jockey Club’s winning project, which encompasses a group-wide green strategy led by Sustainability and Corporate Social Values Manager Kirstin McEvoy.
“The Going Green engagement programme has been going for around 10 years,” explained McEvoy.
“It’s all about engaging as many people as possible in what we are doing and making sure everyone understands what the Jockey Club’s sustainability targets are, where we’ve come from, where we’re heading and really getting as many people involved as possible.
“I think gradually more and more people are engaged and wanting to be more active in the area of environmental sustainability. I think there is a lot of repetition, you do need to keep saying the same thing over and over again. You may have told all of the employees what we’re trying to achieve but you need to get back out there and remind them about what it is they can do personally to make a difference and to get involved.
“It’s brilliant to win the award. I’m really excited – I was hopeful but you never know!”
Sharing best practice is crucial to addressing climate issues according to McEvoy.
“If anyone is interested in what we’ve done to make the difference at The Jockey Club, I’m really happy to share that as we can’t fix these issues on our own,” she said.
“Getting not just the jockey club involved, but the whole racing industry and the wider sports industry is important.
“I’m really passionate about sharing what we do. The more we talk about it and get more people involved, the better.”
The Showcase Awards celebrated excellence and innovation in racecourse operations and raceday experience and was delivered by The Racecourse Association Ltd in partnership with Great British Racing, Racing Post, The Racing Foundation and Racing Together – how the sport helps others.
The runners up of the award, Newmarket Racecourse’s Sustainable Style Awards and Ripon Racecourse’s Greening Up Campaign, will be supported by the Racecourse Association to share best practice in the critical area of environmental sustainability to all racecourses.
There were 15 awards presented at the Showcase in total, with the highly-converted Showcase Champion award won by Aintree.
“This was an exceptional year for Aintree,” said Chief Executive of the Racecourse Association David Armstrong.
“They were selected as finalists in three separate categories and won two of them. Victories in both the raceday and non-raceday events demonstrate the versatility of the racecourse and the agility of the team in executing them so superbly.
“In what has been a challenging year for racecourses, I was buoyed by the quality of the initiatives on show. In addition to our winners, the judges saw fit to award four Highly Commended Accolades which is testament to the hard work of racecourses in doing all they can to attract and retain customers.
“The RCA will share the best practice arising from this year’s Showcase Awards amongst all racecourses in the year ahead.”
