MEMBERS ON SPORTING STAGE - Melbourne Cricket Club
MEMBERS ON SPORTING STAGE - Melbourne Cricket Club
MEMBERS ON SPORTING STAGE - Melbourne Cricket Club
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CLUB NEWS<br />
ENERGY, WATER, WASTE<br />
<strong>ON</strong> THE WATCH LIST<br />
Environmental considerations are<br />
high priority at the People’s<br />
Ground. There’s a concerted effort<br />
to ensure that the MCG is a good<br />
corporate citizen, complying with<br />
regulatory bodies and striving to exceed<br />
the expectations of an increasingly<br />
“green” community.<br />
Among several research projects on his<br />
books, executive manager for environment<br />
and turf development Tony Ware is charged<br />
with improving the carbon footprint at the<br />
ground. This involves developing energy,<br />
water and waste management practices that<br />
can be costed on a carbon-equivalent basis.<br />
In conjunction with Spotless and the<br />
facilities management team led by Peter<br />
Wearne, Tony is examining every possible<br />
avenue to increase the MCG’s overall<br />
effi ciency. Perhaps the ground could<br />
generate more of its own power through<br />
wind turbines and solar panels, and when<br />
should lights be turned off. They’re all in<br />
the mix.<br />
On the water front, rainfall is harvested<br />
from the new grandstand’s roof and<br />
stored in a 1.5 million litre tank. It is used<br />
to clean the seating bowl. But with the<br />
MCG using about 80 million litres of<br />
water annually, there is scope for<br />
improvement and alternative sources are<br />
being investigated.<br />
“By far the biggest water use at the<br />
ground is for toilet fl ushing,” says Peter<br />
Wearne, “and you don’t need potable<br />
water for that function.”<br />
We’re winning with waste. Event-day<br />
MCG REDEVELOPMENT<br />
SNARES TOP AWARD<br />
The MCG’s magnifi cent new<br />
grandstand has been delighting<br />
members and patrons for almost<br />
three years now, but recognition of its<br />
quality keeps on coming from within the<br />
construction industry.<br />
At the prestigious Excellence in<br />
Construction Awards, hosted by the<br />
Master Builders Association of Victoria<br />
in July, Grocon was named Master<br />
Builder of the Year for its MCG<br />
redevelopment project.<br />
The association’s executive director,<br />
4 MCC NEWS<br />
DECEMBER 2008<br />
waste recycling from the seating bowl is<br />
virtually 100 per cent, while in recent<br />
years the recycling of all MCG waste has<br />
risen from about 20 per cent to above<br />
80 per cent. There is more improvement<br />
in the pipeline.<br />
The carbon footprint project will lead<br />
to a better MCG, a superior venue in<br />
every respect. It’s part of the back-room,<br />
behind-the-scenes activity that provides<br />
essential support to management and<br />
those who are putting on the show.<br />
“The MCG is a big business, a mini-city<br />
that deals with virtually all the obligations,<br />
risks and responsibilities of a major<br />
corporation,” says the facilities manager,<br />
who is conscious of the club’s obligation to<br />
provide a safe and secure environment.<br />
“On match days we have a duty of care<br />
for up to 100,000 people and there are<br />
usually 400-plus working here at any given<br />
time, plus many hundreds who could be<br />
attending functions around the ground,”<br />
he says. “We’re ultimately responsible for<br />
their welfare while they’re at the ground,<br />
and we take that very seriously.”<br />
Portable<br />
pitches are<br />
now under<br />
the facilities<br />
management<br />
umbrella.<br />
Brian Welch, said the MCG<br />
redevelopment joined a long list of<br />
Master Builder projects as “an iconic<br />
structure which demonstrates technical<br />
engineering excellence”.<br />
“Every Australian can be proud of<br />
Grocon’s redevelopment of the MCG,”<br />
said Mr Welch. “Taking almost four<br />
years, the redevelopment was a<br />
complicated project with several major<br />
events scheduled throughout the process.<br />
“Construction has resulted in a sporting<br />
facility capable of holding 100,000<br />
Peter Wearne has cleaning,<br />
security, operations and arenas<br />
management under his watch<br />
and he’s well prepared for the task.<br />
A Bachelor of Business, Peter spent<br />
13 years with the public service,<br />
including fi ve years with the Liquor<br />
Licensing Commission, as well as<br />
seven years managing a food<br />
processing fi rm.<br />
More recently he managed<br />
Spotless’s cleaning contract at Crown<br />
and was with caterer Delaware North<br />
in a marketing role before joining the<br />
club in 2006.<br />
His arrival at the MCG was predestined.<br />
Peter was one of 2000 babies<br />
who Honorary Life member Donald<br />
Cordner was proud to deliver, nearly<br />
all of them in the Diamond Creek<br />
region, and the Wearnes remain fi rm<br />
friends of the good doctor to this day.<br />
spectators, with 55,000 new seats<br />
installed much closer to the action. Due to<br />
Grocon’s sterling effort, the MCG is now<br />
truly one of the greatest stadiums in the<br />
world,” he said.<br />
And so say all of us.