Changing the Narrative: Sustainaiblity for the next generation of sports surface – It’s here already!

Moderator: Claus Weberstorfer, Owner, Ingenieurbüro Weberstorfer, Austria

Planning for sustainability starts at the end, not the beginning
Martin Sheppard, Managing Director, Smart Connection Consultancy, Australia

This presentation explores how to plan, design, and procure truly sustainable synthetic sports surfaces by first understanding your goals and end-of-life management strategy. Using the 4P Sustainability lens—People, Planet, Prosperity, and Performance—it highlights how synthetic technology can increase access and usage, reduce environmental impacts and maintenance needs, lower whole-of-life costs, and ensure fit-for-purpose performance.

Hockey’s green journey: ambitions, setbacks, successes & learnings 
Paul Kamphuis, General Manager, Polytan Asia Pacific, Australia

Hockey has embraced artificial turf as their preferred surface, but how does the sport balance performance and playability against environmental pressures, such as climate change, water scarcity and microplastics? How product innovation and green technology is shaping hockey’s future in the face of climate change.

How industry is innovating to provide sustainable synthetic turf sports surfaces
Prof. Alastair Cox, Technical Director, ESTC, United Kingdom

Synthetic turf surfaces provide high-quality, long-lasting sport surfaces that are able to sustain high levels of use. For some sports they are now the surface of choice, whilst for others they are the only solution when the demands of the climate or scarcity of land make natural surface un¬viable. But synthetic turfs are made from plastics, and as environmental concerns about the use of these materials grows, so do uncertainties about using synthetic turfs. The presentation will show will discuss how the synthetic turf industry is responding to these challenges and bringing sustainable solutions to market.

The importance of maintenance for long term sustainability of synthetic sports surfaces
Dennis Frank, Managing Director, ISP Institute for Sports Facilities Testing, Germany

How to recover, recycle and reuse: closing the loop for synthetic turf
Kilian Peschel, GreenMatter, Netherlands

This presentation will show how circularity can be brought into sports. Starting with planks and beams made from recycled worn out artificial turf, moving on to modular (sports) tile flooring, and now developing high-quality recycled plastic panels. The mission is to support raw materials policy and reduce turf waste through socially responsible solutions that make sports facilities more circular, now and in the future.