Sustainability

Munster Rugby is acutely aware of its stewardship for the legacy of the province and setting our young people up for a bright future. We want to continue to develop the sport we love in the places we love, and to be a force for delivering positive environmental and social impacts in our local communities.

In our latest Environmental Impact and Sustainability Report 2024, we aim to go further with our communication of this complex issue already impacting our people and our communities by using our own rugby language to break it down. We delve into our ‘why’, our ‘how’ and share what happens behind-the-scenes to encourage others to join us and help us on our journey.

Our supporters have stated that transparency is essential to how the club communicates progress. In response, we look back on detailed data from the 2022-23 season and actions through the 2023-24 season.

Read the 2024 Environmental Impact and Sustainability Report here.

Read our 2023 Environmental Impact & Sustainability Report here.

Our Commitments

By becoming a signatory to the UN Sports for Climate Action and Race to Zero frameworks in 2021 and 2022, Munster Rugby joined over 300 global sports organisations with a collective ambition to drive climate action. The club was one of the first rugby clubs in the world on this list where signatories publicly commit to a systematic reduction of their carbon emissions and to influence through the power of sport.

These frameworks commit us to achieving specific climate goals of halving emissions by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2040. This commitment affects every part of the club, including taking responsibility for the impact of supporters within our sport.

So far we have:

• Developed a Climate Transition Action Plan

• Retained UN Sport for Climate Action Framework signatory status since 2021

• Signed up to UN Global Compact

Our Gameplan

Attack the emissions, get them down to near zero
&
Defend against the impacts of climate change

Our Approach

Since making our commitments we have started to embed sustainability into all our operations. We are developing a wider sustainability strategy which will pull the 3 pillars of sustainability together: environmental, social, and economic, helping us to connect the dots of our work across the club to tell our story.

Munster Rugby facilities include Thomond Park, Virgin Media Park and the High Performance Centre in the University of Limerick. Munster Rugby fully recognise that its operations have an impact on the local, national, and global environment.

Our resources can be limited, but we have capable people, players as role models, dedicated supporters, and strong partnerships. We believe Munster can become a catalyst for the right kind of change in our local communities, in Irish society and in rugby globally.

To do this, as we attack and defend to implement our climate gameplan, we will lead by example and use our influence to maximise our impact.

Our Actions

We have been taking sustainable actions over the last number of seasons, but now we are stringing things together, increasing ambition, finding new ways, scaling up, and measuring our progress. This is the decade for action – the window is closing fast.

We like to celebrate the wins! Here is some of our work to date as we build up the phases of our sustainability journey season-on-season:

Energy

• 644 solar panels were installed on the roof of both the West Stand and East Terrace in Virgin Media Park with our energy partners, Pinergy, and have been feeding into the Irish National Grid since May 2024

• Following an assessment, the roof of Thomond Park has been deemed unsuitable for the installation of solar panels for the moment, however we will continue to look for solutions to increase our renewable energy generation

• Acutrace Energy Analytics Software using smart meters give more precise control of electric and gas heating systems at our properties.

• We have upgraded to LED lighting systems, including LED floodlights at both stadiums and LED advertising board at Thomond Park. Floodlights at Virgin Media Park for example have lowered from 248kW to 144kW following the switch to LEDs – a 42% reduction.

• Heatzones using electrical heating systems were installed at Thomond Park for supporters comfortable in-stadium experience

• We purchase electricity from Pinergy. Pinergy electricity is certified as green under the Guarantees of Origin scheme administered by SEMO and the CRU.

• We installed 2 HVO generators for Thomond Park in 2024 and increased mains capacity to reduce overall diesel use

Water

• We have installed smart meters and sensors to monitor and reduce our water usage and have waterless urinals throughout Thomond Park.

• We have partnered with ONA, part of PWG Ireland, to provide filtered water refill stations across our properties to provide quality drinking water for our players and staff with the target to reduce single-use plastics.

• The next phase will then be to roll these out to the concourses at stadiums for supporters to use with their own reusable bottles.

Waste

The effort to reduce waste across operations and particularly stadium events is an ongoing challenge every season. By following the waste hierarchy of reduce first, reuse next, recycle last we are improving our waste management systems across all properties.

• We aim to phase out single-use plastics from our stadiums.

• We introduced reusable cups in Thomond Park’s west stand in the 2023-24 season

• We are engaging with our catering partners to reduce packaging waste linked to hot and cold snacks.

• Reusable coffee mugs were provided to MRSC Supporters Club members as their 2022/2023 season gift to encourage using reusables on the go and at our stadiums.

• We designed our own waste segregation bins at Thomond Park leading to increased matchday waste recycling rates with glass, food, cardboard, plastic, paper, metal and grass segregated and collected by our waste partner Mr Binman.

• Elimination of all plastic bags for waste collection has also been implemented with a strict policy of using compostable bags only.

• We worked with Limerick City and County Council to install waste segregation bins outside the stadium too.

• We have automated our Accounts Payable system and staff have drastically reduced printer use.

• Digital ticketing is in full operation at both stadiums

• Flag collection bins are in operation at Thomond Park to allow flags to be reused

• Sustainability messaging to encourage our supporters to adopt the circular economy principles of ‘Reduce Reuse Recycle’ by reusing cups and recycling correctly, are displayed on our LED boards at Thomond Park

Travel

• 77% of our car fleet have been transitioned to fully electric via our cross-partnerships with Pinergy and Kearys. This includes EV chargers installed at our stadiums and in staff and player homes for those who use electric fleet cars

• Organised buses to Thomond Park for big games was expanded in 2024-25 season

• In 2023-24 season, we launched the Munster March campaign with partners adidas, engaging supporters on travel to stadiums, including a walking march

• All our Munster teams use bus travel for all away matches on the island of Ireland

• We take scheduled flights as opposed to charter flights the majority of the time to reduce emissions

• Staff and players are encourage to car-share, which is common for all training sessions

• We have a Work-From-Home policy embedded at the club. Over 30 members of staff work from home 2 days per week

• We partner with the NTA on the Smarter Travel Workplace behaviour change programme

Food

• Plant-based food options are available at Thomond Park for our supporters

• Vegetarian options are available within our hospitality packages at Thomond Park

Kit & Merchandise

• Our kit and merchandise are made of recycled materials across the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, driven by innovation by our kit partner, adidas

Our Emissions

We track our carbon emissions and report annually under the UN Sport for Climate Action Framework, the UN Global Compact and publicly in our sustainability reports.

In the 2022/2023 season:

Scope 1 = 180 tCO2e

Scope 2 = 257 tCO2e

Scope 3 = 6,455 tCO2e

Overall Emissions = 6,892 tCO2e

A more detailed breakdown can be found in our annual sustainability reports.