How the Australian Grand Prix Corporation is leading the sustainability race

The Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix is set to return as the sport’s season opener from next year, welcoming almost half a million motorsport fans across four days of action.

After the COVID-19 pandemic foiled 2020’s event and 2021’s race was cancelled for the same reason, Formula 1 fans have returned to Albert Park in Melbourne in their droves. For the third year in a row, last month’s Australian Grand Prix welcomed a record-breaking attendance, this time attracting 452,055.

Curating and building an event that is set to welcome a crowd of this magnitude can present some challenges – and this is even more significant when the Australian Grand Prix’s location is a temporary street track.

For the rest of the year, Albert Park is indeed just a park. There are a few buildings and chicanes that mark the pitlane, but it is mostly an oasis to enjoy the central hub of Melbourne in the distance and the gentle ripples caused by ducks on the lake.

Being a temporary location, it can present its challenges when it comes to implementing sustainability initiatives. However, it can also offer opportunities to be creative with new technology and ideas – allowing organisers to lead the race to be more sustainable in Australia.

Embracing creativity

In 2023, the Australian Grand Prix became the first major event in the country to use hydrogen cell generators operationally.

Following the success of implementing this technology in general admission areas, the Australian Grand Prix Corporation – the promoter of the event – decided to double efforts for the 2024 race weekend.

The EODev GEH2 hydrogen-fuelled generators offer an alternative to diesel generators, and only emit water and vapour. In 2023, they saved roughly two tonnes of CO2 from being released over the four-day race weekend.

For this year’s race, the AGPC not only increased the number of hydrogen generators, but also added a hybrid generator and two mass battery storage units. Two ovals within the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit were powered using the hydrogen generators, which were supplied by Blue Diamond Machinery and Toyota Australia.

The Albert Park site also utilised 100% Accredited Green Power from renewable sources such as hydro, wind, solar and waste. A 5% FAME (Fatty Acid Methyl Ester) Biodiesel blend was used to fuel the remaining generators, with screens and patron thoroughfare at selected gates powered by hybrid energy generation, battery storage and solar light towers.

With the AGPC being a government entity, the move to be more sustainable supports state and national goals, as well as the targets set by Formula 1.

Implementing this new technology for the previous two editions of the Australian Grand Prix has been a major step forward for the AGPC’s sustainability efforts. The organisation’s sustainability journey began in earnest in 2019, but the pandemic threw up a barrier, hindering progress. However, the corporation was not going to settle for a DNF.

“I think we are in a really unique position where we get to have oversight on how the park is built, and that’s something we are looking at gathering more data on. We have those touchpoints and influences of change through infrastructure, and how we view operations,” Sarah Lowe, Australian Grand Prix Corporation’s Sustainability Manager, tells Global Sustainable Sport.

“Perhaps those easy wins that other organisations might be able to achieve – for example as a permanent structure – it’s just not something we have. It’s not accessible to us, so it takes a more creative approach to it. But there’s still a lot of things that even as a temporary circuit that we can still achieve, if you’re looking at it purely from an environmental perspective.”

The AGPC works with a project management company called iEDM, which essentially builds the event. Lowe says this is a “symbiotic” relationship that allows the team to look at various ways of dealing with waste management and more.

While the organisation is the promoter of the Grand Prix, it can only work within its remit when it comes to implementing changes. This means that the team has largely begun with looking at the perceived ‘smaller’ things it can do to make a big change.

“For us, as a promoter, we applied an operational approach to our greenhouse gas accounting, and what is contractually within our accessibility and influence. For us, our role is to build the event, in collaboration with our project managers, and our contractors,” says Lowe.

“We then facilitate the event. As a promoter, our responsibility is to build the event and to operate the event. Anything on track, or even elsewhere in terms of freight, doesn’t come within our operational control. So when we look at things in terms of our sustainability plans, and our wider influence, we really focus on what we can do as a promoter.”

As a government entity, the AGPC had the opportunity to be an early adopter of the Victorian Container Deposit Scheme, which was launched in November last year. This scheme from the state government rewards users with a ¢10 refund for every eligible can, carton and bottle that is returned.

Elsewhere, the organisers have worked with Green My Plate, an organisation that aids the reduction of single-use plastic through a closed-loop reusable system, providing attendees with reusable plates and bowls.

Working with the AGPC’s project management company, the team can develop sustainable practices to constantly improve diversion rates.

“Everything is currently being trialled and we’re still highlighting projects, which is exciting,” says Lowe.

“We had recycling stations this year and eco-champions; offering those touchpoints of education to fans. We integrated a closed-loop system for catering-wear, so it was reusable plates and bowls. We improved our water refill stations, and these are all positive steps in the right direction.

“This is the third event where we’ve been working on sustainability, so it’s still very much in its infancy. We’re getting some things right, we’re getting some things wrong, but that’s just part of the process.”

While fan travel and Scope 3 emissions are a major contributor to an event’s footprint, the Australian Grand Prix has the benefit of being held at a location that is so connected with its host city.

“Anything that a fan experiences getting to the event, and at the event, that’s where we can have that touchpoint for change,” explains Lowe.

“Even when you’re talking about public transport, for example, our venue operations team work with Yarra Trams – the tram operators here in Melbourne – with buses, and other active forms of transport.

“Those are things that we can concentrate on throughout the year to try and increase the patron usage of public transport, which is great. We do that through pre-event communications and communications during the event. It’s more of a natural integration into the comms that we already put out there.

“We have a ‘Before you Go’ page and things like that. We have touchpoints throughout, and even on the website we always encourage fans to take active transport to the event. We’ve been reducing the amount of parking we have on-site. Those things are within our control.”

Of course, the efforts made by each individual promoter on the Formula 1 calendar help the sport to achieve its wider sustainability goals.

Earlier this week, Formula 1 released its first Impact Report. The sport has seen its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives result in a 13% reduction in its carbon footprint when compared to a 2018 baseline.

The report reveals F1’s carbon footprint data from the 2022 season, as its carbon data from last year continues to be collated and calculated.

On two wheels

The Australian Grand Prix Corporation is not only responsible for hosting the Formula 1 Grand Prix in the country, but also the staging of MotoGP on Phillip Island.

Located just off the south coast, Phillip Island provides a popular day trip destination from Melbourne and also houses the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.

While the circuit is a permanent track, the fact that it is located on an island presents its own challenges. Additionally, the AGPC effectively rents the track, further limiting its ability to implement as many sustainable initiatives as it would like.

MotoGP operator Dorna and Formula 1 are also at different stages in their sustainability journey, says Lowe. This has an effect on the sustainability activities that AGPC can undertake.

“There’s the contractual obligations and aspirations set by the promoter Dorna – the operator of MotoGP. For example, Dorna and Formula 1 are at different stages of their ESG and climate journey, so what they’re expecting from us in that sense is different. I think big parts of it are more around that push to have ESG integrated into our everyday business.

“We’re moving towards it [sustainability] not being a second thought, it’s business as usual. It might be slower at the event because of the promoter obligations and the circuit, but essentially as a business we’re striving to have sustainability fully integrated, which is going to take time.”

While fans can easily utilise public transport to reach the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix in Melbourne, it can be a little trickier to prioritise low-carbon travel when attending MotoGP on Phillip Island.

“Down in Phillip Island, it’s a really interesting one in itself. Talking about fan travel – it’s literally on an island. You can’t jump on a tram to get there. So that’s been something that we’ve highlighted as an opportunity for us, and we’d like to move on with that with MotoGP this year.

“How can we provide more sustainable solutions for getting to the event that’s still practical, and how might that work? Again, that might take a couple of years, but we had a ‘Catch a Coach’ service that we ran last year. It was a programme run by our events operations team, and it went really well, with shared buses from the CBD [central business district].

“That came out of a weather incident and we said, we ‘should keep this because there’s an environmental element to it; there’s an engagement element to it’.”

What’s next?

Like many sporting organisations that have recently embarked on their sustainability initiatives, the Australian Grand Prix Corporation wanted to make sure its house was in order before shouting from the rooftops about its efforts.

“For the last two-and-a-half years, we’ve been working on establishing the benchmarks, we’ve been getting our house ready. It’s important, and I think that takes time and it’s always evolving. I don’t think you can prescribe three years and then you’ll be good to go. This is the first year that we’ve started to face our stakeholders and speak internally and with our fans, and try and gauge where our fans are on that journey as well,” explains Lowe.

Next on the agenda for the AGPC is to develop external-facing plans, engage with its wider supply chain and talk with other stakeholders.

“For the event, it’s about looking at how we can implement touchpoints of innovation. You don’t have to be constantly reinventing the wheel, but there’s ways that we can look at being more efficient, and how we could do this with more of an environmental or social lens,” adds Lowe.

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