Sustainable Sport NEWS

Leading sports surfaces consultancies Smart Connection Consultancy and SPORTENG are combining their engineering and performance surface knowledge to offer a series of seminars covering contemporary issues in sports surfaces.

Aimed at local government and sport, the seminars will provide an update on pending European Commission (EC) restrictions on the use of recycled rubber and plastic as an infill for artificial turf systems, the NSW Chief Scientist’s recommendations on synthetic sports surfaces and global innovations for the next generation of surfaces.

Smart Connection Consultancy and SPORTENG’s seminars will be held in Sydney on Monday 14th November and Melbourne on Thursday 17th November.

Introducing the events, SPORTENG’s Jarrod Hill stated “the importance of understanding the history and characteristics of a field to develop a sports engineering solution is critical for the life of a sports field, which SPORTENG embraces with a passion and depth that provides confidence to the client that it will provide the basis for a 20 year plus life.

“We will explore the key components of this in these Seminars and share our thinking on the design for future generations, especially around carbon neutral designs and reduction of impact on climate change.”

Seminar content will include:

• The pending impact of Europe Commission restriction on infills
• The expected release of the NSW Chief Scientist recommendations
• Surface Standards for football, rugby union and AFL
• A new generation of thinking for hockey surfaces
• Sports engineering design for next generation
• 3G v’s 4G, infill and no infill
• Recycling of synthetic sports turf 
• Industry health and environmental responsibilities

The two seminars will be held at:

• Sydney - University of NSW: showcasing the Village Green, a unique multi-sports/activity precinct, and the most innovative design strategy seen in Australia, combining different surfaces for football (11-a-side, five-a-side and futsal) rugby, tennis, basketball, running/jogging, exercise routines and passive leisure.
• Melbourne - North Melbourne Recreation Centre: followed by a site visit to Kensington’s JJ Holland Park, which has recently been resurfaced after 10 years of intensive usage.

Looking forward to the seminars, Smart Connection Consultancy’s Martin Sheppard noted “after 14 years of advising local and state government, sport and the education sectors, I can honestly say we are at a cross roads with the design, the systems and the way we judge sustainability and the impact of sports surfaces.

“These seminars are a must for any organisation who wants to understand the reality of synthetic sports surfaces.”

Click here for full details and registration forms.

Image: The University of NSW's recently complete Village Green project.

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