Amsterdam, 11 November 2011

Today at 11-11-11 is the Day of Sustainability. Amsterdam ArenA picks this day to seal cooperations within its sustainable program. The ArenA believes that sustainability is not to be achieved alone, but that you need to work together with founders, business partners and event organizers to get to more ideas and to help each other to realize and finance sustainable projects. In addition, together you can create more support. Today Amsterdam ArenA signs Green Deals with 34 partners. With signing Green Deals partners commit to draw up concrete agreements to work together to achieve the sustainable ambition of Amsterdam ArenA .  

One of the Green Deal partners is durable bio-plastic manufacturer Braskem from Brazil. In this Green Deal the concrete appointment is created that in the coming year a number of tribune seats are replaced by the following seats made from green bio- plastic, that means it is based on 100% renewable raw material. The company Braskem produces green bio-plastic from ethylene based on ethanol extracted from sugar cane instead of petroleum. Sugar cane is a renewable raw material unlike oil, what becomes ever scarcer. In addition, green bio- plastic owns the same technical characteristics as plastic that is created of petroleum.

The sugar cane cultivation in Brazil is not to be decremented of other agricultural crops. The bio-products of the sugar cane cultivation, which reside on more than 2,500 km of the Amazon forest, used for power generation. This preserves the biodiversity in Brazil. In addition to the production of one kilogram of plastic from oil 2 to 2.5 kg CO2 free, while the production of 1 kilo Green bio-plastic is 2 to 2.5 kg CO2. Henk Markerink, Director Amsterdam ArenA. "Sugar cane is a abundant commodity. So we save two birds with one stone; we replace our seats and we use an environmentally friendly material, that further contributes to the reduction of CO2 emissions.

In 2010, Amsterdam ArenA drawn up a 5 year plan to sustain the stadium. The Organization will be CO2 neutral in 2015, will produce less waste and will reduce it’s water consumption. To achieve her ambitions Amsterdam ArenA involves its partner organizations. Soon proved to be much of it to work on its sustainable ambitions and they sign a Green Deal today. In the next three months concrete agreements will be drawn up for each Green Deal. In 2012 strategic meetings are planned, which will be sealed in the last quarter 2012 in the then delivered new sustainable main building of Amsterdam ArenA itself.

For more information and images:

Amsterdam ArenA
Claire Sleijffers
T: +3120 – 311 13 58
E: c.sleijffers@amsterdamarena.nl
Renske Heeringa
T: +3120 – 311 13 48
E: r.heeringa@amsterdamarena.nl