Te Kori Scott PointSustainable Sports Park achieves Leading Design Rating
Project Description:
Scott Point Sustainable Sports Park is a 16.4ha area of land in the northwest of Auckland that is about to be transformed from a rural landscape to a public park to meet the needs of a new community.
Development of this park is no ordinary feat. Scott Point is set to become the first fully sustainable park in New Zealand. Auckland Council is embarking on this project as a flagship for the future sustainable provision of parks. It will help steer the future course of design, development, management and governance of parks across Auckland in a way that responds to the urgent needs of our planet for sustainable custodianship.
Auckland Council’s Service Principles have informed the development of the master plan. These include: Resource sustainability; Community equity and belonging; Re-wilding; Team and co-design; and Standards and outcomes.
The park will comprise three main areas: an area for sports and active recreation, an informal recreation area, and an area of ecological restoration and conservation. Each is defined by the geography of the site. Natural landforms are retained and earthworks minimised.
Key Achievements:
Energy reductions – 13% reduction in whole of life carbon footprint including:
- alternative turf requiring less sand, and less turf area to mow and maintain
- topsoil reuse onsite
- reduction in site clearance requirements,
- and optimised lighting control
Water reductions – 36% reduction in operational water footprint from installation of Blue2Green rainwater capture and reuse system (conservatively -20%), use of valve in head irrigation system for target irrigation of smaller areas (-14%), and reduction in earthworks requirements (-2%).
Non-Potable water use – 100% water for construction and operations that does not require potable water such as dust suppression and sports field irrigation can be supplied through rainwater capture (1.46 ML/year) and consented groundwater bore (15.3ML/year).
Ecology – 29% enhancement in ecological value through restoring agricultural land, prioritising use of native vegetation and strategic planting to create re-connected corridors as well as suitable land for endangered flora species.
Community – extensive stakeholder engagement included a co-design process to collaborate with local iwi and integrate Te Aranga Māori Design Principles and Te Waka Oranga Principles into the design.
Innovations – the project was awarded 5 innovation points for exceeding ecology credit benchmarks, achieving Innovation Challenge 6 (Supply Chain Education), and featuring Blue2Greeen technology.
Rating Highlights:
29% Enhancement in ecological value
The SPSSP project increases the site ecological value by 29% through the following design features:
- Re-vegetating the existing contaminated / hard infrastructure nursey area,
- Replace 18,9123 m2 of exotic planting with 22,134 m2 native vegetation,
- Reducing the area of grassland / non-improved pastures by 7% a total of 4,830 m2
These features have been implemented by developing a Native planting plan eco-sourced from the area, designing different planting zones with complimentary species, supporting population growth of critically endangered plant Epilobium hirtigerum, increasing connectivity and forest spaces, and planning for on-going management of the planting and fauna.
This is a large increase in ecological value and is above and beyond the Level 3 requirement of 20%. Therefore 1 innovation credit was awarded.
Innovation Challenge – Supply Chain Education
85% of the Project Team undertook Supply Chain Sustainability School eLearning modules. Two key modules (Climate Change Adaptation and Sustainable Construction) were delivered by group learning sessions, and the rest of the training was through self-paced online modules.
NZ First – 3 innovation points | Blue2Green Innovative Technology | 100% Rainwater capture and onsite reuse
Jacobs and Sporteng have designed Field 1 to utilise Blue2Green for stabilisation of the base and irrigation. The specified Blue2Green system provides storage of 1080m3 and will capture rainwater and reuse 100% of its water onsite.
Blue2Green is a system of crates that are made from recycled plastic that stack together. They sit underneath the performance layers of the field and collect rainwater that falls onto the field. The grass root system of the field can then draw the water up to ‘self-irrigate’ through wicking.
This design is innovative and helps solve future water supply problems as the reservoir can hold water for dry seasons and the grass can self-irrigate. This vastly reduces the potable water supply for irrigation at the site.
The cells themselves are also made of 90% recycled plastic and can be recycled at their end of life, meaning the product itself has a low carbon equivalent impact.
The cells also act as a stabilised base which reduces the amount of aggregate required under Feld 1. As Field 1 is the main field with the highest hours of play, it is the highest quality field. This required extra design considerations for the base, which in the Base Case consisted of a 200mm thick aggregate subbase. This has been replaced by Blue2Green in the design.
Blue2Green Schematic from Supplier Brochure
Acknowledgments:
New Zealand Firsts
- NZ first IS Design Rating for a sports park.
- NZ first use of Blue2Green water management technology design for a sports park.
Stakeholders:
It is acknowledged that this achievement has been the result of multiple stakeholder input including:
- Leadership by Auckland Council and an aspiration to reach a Leading rating
- Design led by Jacobs with specialist input from Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara and Te Kawerau ā Maki (iwi co-design partners), HEB (Early Contractor Engagement), SportsEng (Sports field including Blue2Green technology), WPS Opus (stakeholder engagement),, Morphum Environmental (Ecology)