The Desert Vipers second annual Sustainability Match, this season on Saturday 18 January against the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders at the Dubai International Stadium, will see the team again shine a spotlight on the environment.
The Vipers players and support staff will again don special green kit, while inviting all those attending the game to show their support to the planet and to the team’s commitment to sustainability by wearing green as well.
Playing apparel, and specifically the desire to make its manufacture as environmentally friendly as possible, has been a key area of concentration for this season according to the Vipers’ Sustainability Lead, Ben Hardy-Jones.
“Last year water was the big focus, this year it's all about kit,” he told the Vipers Voices podcast. “We are delighted to have partnered with PalmFit to make our kit the most sustainable that it can be at this point in time in top-tier cricket.
“Our kit is made from fully recycled materials this year. So that reduces our carbon footprints by around 50 percent. But actually another really fantastic thing about this partnership with PalmFit is that they are a local UAE manufacturer.
“We are always looking to support local organisations and businesses and having that local aspect is really important. And crucially that also reduces our footprints from travel of kit by about eight percent. And overall, in this area we have got a nice, roughly 60 percent, reduction in our carbon footprints.
“Also, this year none of our kit is delivered in what is usually the case, single use plastic packaging. It is all delivered loosely so that saves thousands of different packaging items from being used across the year and has a huge cumulative positive impact as well.”
The colouring of the kit is also environmentally friendly as it has been done using water-based dyes, reducing the use of harmful chemicals in the process, Hardy-Jones added.
The Sustainability Match, a day game starting at 2 o’clock, will be about two key goals: a continuation of innovations from last season and an opportunity to test out new ways of reducing the team’s carbon footprint still further.
Last season the team moved away from the use of single-use plastic, the most visible example of that being the partnership with Bluewater with players and support staff utilizing reusable water bottles, filled by hydration machines next to the player dugouts.
This year, in addition to the playing and support staff apparel manufactured by PalmFit, the fan jerseys have been made using recycled materials.
Last term, the sea of red in the stands made Vipers matches an event on and off the field and Hardy-Jones said this season would hopefully see more of the same – with an added positive.“This year excitingly our fan jerseys are made from recycled plastic bottles using the same company, a company called D-Grade who collected the waste at the end of last season from our sustainability match and then using the same system then turn that into fan jerseys this year,” he said.
“So, it is really exciting that fans can almost be a part of that journey. They are not just wearing the shirts, they are actually contributing to how those are made through their sustainable actions.
On 18 January fans will have a range of green activities to engage in at the fan village at Dubai stadium, including fitness sessions for children to encourage fitness and a healthy lifestyle. Ben Hardy Jones also revealed some new steps the team would be taking to make the venue more ecological: “In the fan zone we will be doing a wake and shake activity, inviting school children to come and do some exercise for 15 minutes and therefore addressing other aspects of sustainability, well-being and health.
“We will also be trialling a few more emissions reduction initiatives. We measured the carbon footprint at last year's match and we identified several key areas, one of which was fan jerseys which we have changed.
“We will also trial further reductions like changes to the air conditioning temperature. Every one degree increase saves about eight percent energy so we will increase it by two degrees in the hospitality zones, and we would also like to remove dairy from the menu, another key driver of the footprint of food. We are currently working with the league and seeing if we can do that.”
So there is plenty to look forward to on January the 18th as the Desert Vipers take on the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in Dubai on Saturday at 2 pm.
Tickets for all Desert Vipers matches are now available here.
