Enabling Edgbaston’s Go Green Game
Drax has been working with Edgbaston as its electricity supplier since 2018.
As Craig Findall, Edgbaston’s Chief Operating Officer, said of the original supply decision, “We chose to work with Drax because we want to be sustainable and want renewable electricity”.
The relationship’s come a long way since then, developing into a true partnership. Never has this been evidenced more clearly than in our collaboration for the Go Green Game in 2023.
Sustainable showpiece
The cricket club was targeting something momentous, namely hosting the sport’s first sustainable match.
Deciding upon the men’s T-20 match between England and New Zealand on 3 September, Edgbaston sought our expertise.
"Partnering with Drax for the Go Green Game, it was so important we swapped our power to 100% solar, wind and hydropower that was locally sourced."
Lydia Carrington – Sustainability Manager, Edgbaston
Watch our video case study to hear from the team involved in delivering the first sustainable cricket game.
Local generation
Thanks to its network of local generators, Drax was able to deliver energy from Edgbaston’s preferred technologies.
As Valpy Fitzgerald, Director of Renewables and Sustainable Commodities at Drax explains,
“We have round about two-and-a-half thousand wind, solar and hydro generators in the UK. What we did was pick the most local of those and allocate the renewable output from those sites to Edgbaston on the Go Green Game day.”
Carbon offsets
But our involvement didn’t stop with the supply of renewable power to meet our customer’s demands. We were keen to maximise the event’s emissions-reduction impact, so sourced carbon credits from high integrity global sustainability initiatives.
“Where we were unable to counter all the emissions locally, we used carbon offsets from projects around the world to try and offset those hard to abate emissions.
The projects we selected were ones from cricketing nations and which have sustainable development goals in line with Edgbaston and Drax.”
Lydia Carrington – Sustainability Manager, Edgbaston
Reduction results
The match delivered impressive emissions reductions, surpassing aims along the way.
“The results of the Go Green Game showed that we exceeded our 25% reduction target and we achieved a 33.7% reduction in overall emissions, so we're all really happy with the results.”
Lydia Carrington – Sustainability Manager, Edgbaston
Sustainability as standard
While organising showpieces such as the Go Green Game presents an excellent way of raising sustainability awareness, Drax is keen to deliver on its purpose. Enabling a zero carbon, lower cost energy future requires developing repeatable initiatives that become business as usual for its customers.
The partnership with Edgbaston works so well as we’re aligned on this outlook.
“We want to use the Go Green Game as a bit of a legacy and learning opportunity for us. “So, take everything that we put in place, what worked and what didn't work into everyday operations at Edgbaston.”
Lydia Carrington – Sustainability Manager, Edgbaston
Paul Miller, Director of Sales and Marketing and Drax, agrees wholeheartedly.
“When I think about this success of the Go Green Game and everything we've achieved, I can't help but think and be excited about what's next.”
Download the Go Green Game case study below, and get in touch to discuss how we can supply you with renewable source electricity and help accelerate your net zero journey.
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