Sustainability Brief
Take the full programme with you. A four-page brief covering our waste streams, our partners and our results.
Waste Not, Want Not
Since 2019, Eventfinda Stadium has run a waste minimisation programme built on a simple principle: landfill should be the last resort, not the first. Every can, cup, container and food scrap that leaves our building has somewhere better to go, and we have spent years making sure it gets there.
Our waste programme is a community programme. The cans leave the stadium and come back as kai. The packaging leaves the stadium and comes back as compost, and then as food. Very little of what we throw away actually goes away, and that is the point.
Cans for Kai: Our Aluminium Goes to the Community
All beverage cans consumed at the stadium are separated at source and supplied to The Kai Ika Project, a partnership between Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae, LegaSea, the Outboard Boating Club of Auckland and the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council.
Kai Ika recovers fish heads, frames and offal that were previously going to waste, and since September 2016 has redistributed those parts to families and community groups in South Auckland who value them. More than 540,000 kg of previously discarded kai has been recovered and shared since the project began.
- Separated at source: cans are kept out of the general waste stream at the point of disposal, not sorted after the fact.
- Aluminium back into the loop: every kilogram we separate re-enters the circular economy rather than being buried.
- Revenue that feeds people: proceeds help Kai Ika recover, process and distribute kai to whānau facing food scarcity.
The project's own values say it best. Kaitiakitanga, guardianship of our resources. Manaakitanga, our obligation to care for people. A material that was once simply rubbish now carries a second purpose, and it stays in our own city.
Compostable by Default, Composted for Real
Every food and beverage item sold at Eventfinda Stadium is served in certified compostable packaging. Cups, lids, plates, cutlery, containers and food scraps all go into the same organics stream, collected by Green Gorilla and taken to their commercial composting facility at Tuakau, south of Auckland.
| Stage | What Happens |
|---|---|
| Collection | Compostable packaging and food waste leave the stadium in a single organics stream and travel to Tuakau. |
| Shred & Blend | Material is shredded, blended with other compostable waste and laid into air-assisted windrows so oxygen flows through it constantly. |
| Thermophilic Phase | The windrow sits at around 70°C. Viruses and bacteria are killed, and tougher substances such as polylactic acids and wood chip break down. |
| Screening | The product is filtered to remove anything larger than 5mm, leaving high-quality finished compost. |
| Back to the Land | Compost goes onto orchards and farms in the Pukekohe and Bombay regions, growing food that comes back into Auckland. |
The full cycle takes roughly six weeks. Packaging that held a coffee at a Saturday morning game is enriching Pukekohe soil before the end of the season.
The Result: A 60% Cut in Waste to Landfill
Since 2023, the weight of waste Eventfinda Stadium sends to landfill has fallen by just over 60%. That is close to a two-thirds reduction in two years, achieved while the stadium continued to host a full calendar of sport, community and commercial events.
It has not come from doing less. It has come from three things:
- Designing waste out at the point of purchase. A single compostable packaging standard across all food and beverage means there is very little that can go to landfill in the first place.
- Sorting properly at the point of disposal. Cans, organics and residual waste are separated where they are generated, not recovered later.
- Choosing partners who close the loop. Kai Ika and Green Gorilla put our material back to work rather than moving the problem somewhere else.
Waste to landfill down more than 60% since 2023.
Why This Matters: Community, Climate and Cost
For future generations
Auckland's landfill capacity is finite, and the airspace we consume today is not available to anyone who comes after us. Organic material in landfill generates methane, one of the fastest-acting contributors to climate change, so diverting it is one of the highest-leverage actions a venue our size can take.
Meanwhile the compost produced from our waste goes to farms that grow more food for Auckland, and our cans fund kai for whānau who need it now. The stadium exists to serve its community over the long term. Reducing our environmental footprint is not separate from that purpose. It is part of it.
For the business
Waste minimisation is not a cost centre. It is a cost control.
- Lower disposal costs. Landfill charges and the national waste disposal levy have risen steadily and will keep rising. Every tonne diverted is a tonne we are not paying to bury, at a rate that only goes up.
- Reduced collection frequency. Less general waste volume means fewer bin lifts and less service cost.
- Simpler operations. One packaging standard removes sorting complexity for staff and patrons alike. There is no wrong bin to worry about.
- Commercial advantage. Promoters, hirers, sponsors and funders increasingly ask for waste and carbon data as a condition of doing business. We can answer with evidence.
- Funding readiness. Verified diversion performance strengthens applications to council, trusts and grant providers, and supports our accountability to our own stakeholders.
Where to next
The 60% reduction is a milestone, not a finish line. Our focus now is on the residual 40%: understanding what is still going to landfill, working with our suppliers and hirers to design it out, and holding the gains as event volumes grow.