Heineken ensures the NZ Festival of Tennis goes green

Heineken, the title sponsor of the Heineken Open tennis tournament, says it was pleased to work with Tennis Auckland, the Glass Packaging Forum and LOVENZ to reduce the internationally acclaimed sporting event’s environmental footprint.

This year, spectators at the New Zealand Festival of Tennis, held across the first two weeks of January, were actively encouraged to recycle their glass bottles and other drinks containers. The result of this new green initiative was the recycling of 14.5 tonnes of mixed recyclables; 7.9 tonnes of glass bottles and 3.8 tonnes of cardboard.

Heineken New Zealand’s marketing manager, Jennie Macindoe, said the brand was committed at the outset to ensuring the event was successful from a sustainability perspective.

“There is definitely a shift in the way we activate our sponsorships as we look to instil a green initiative within all of our events. This year we ran a collaborative effort with Tennis Auckland, the Glass Packaging Forum under the LOVENZ brand to ensure there was a recycling programme in place to help lessen the environmental impact of the New Zealand Festival of Tennis. The final figures from the recycling drive were fantastic, and we are extremely proud of spectators’ efforts to help create an environmentally friendly event.”

LOVENZ project manager, Lyn Mayes, said it is encouraging to see high profile brands think about their environmental impact at large scale New Zealand sporting events.

“It is definitely encouraging to see large brands initiate steps to drive recycling at events they sponsor. LOVENZ and the Glass Packaging Forum worked closely with Heineken to forge a plan to drive recycling at the tennis and wanted to reiterate the recycle message to fans across the two weeks. It was great to see the results, with a massive 26 tonnes recycled achieving a 57% recycling rate across both tennis tournaments. Obviously the message which Heineken promoted on the big screen between matches each day during the Heineken Open hit home with many at the day and evening sessions, to do the right thing, and love New Zealand through recycling.”

ENDS

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