Big Green Week: How Norwich City is becoming more sustainable

At Norwich City, both at Carrow Road and the Lotus Training Centre, plenty of changes have been made in recent years to become more sustainable.

Goalkeeper Tim Krul talked us through some of the developments he’s seen since his arrival at the club.

“I walked into this club three years ago now. The big changes of the training ground are immense.

“The club made a conscious decision to invest heavily two years ago into the structure of the club, the training ground and the facilities, and a massive part is to get greener.

“There’s been a massive change, for sure. They’ve partnered up with Kotkamills, who have literally transformed around the training pitches with vegetable fields, which is incredible to see.

“I was speaking to the chef and it’s incredible to see the vegetables, the fruit, and the herb garden when you walk into the training ground. They really tried to make a change.

“The club is making the young boys aware of how important it is and the food is being locally sourced and they try to use local companies, instead of it coming from South America.

“We’ve got some great people in charge here, with Dan Savage, who is our main chef and some special nutritionists coming in from outside the club, so they’re definitely on the right path.”

With Carrow Road now full every other weekend for City’s Premier League fixtures at home, sustainability is more important than ever.

“There are 30,000 people going into the stadium on the weekend, so you can imagine the waste it will produce if it wasn’t looked after, so it’s a great job by the people who push that through,” Krul said.

“The amount of water used to keep the pitch in prime condition, you can imagine the gallons that need to be used in these hot days. All the rain water is getting filtered back into the system.

“It’s all high tech, the heat keeping it in and using all the right materials. I think the organic way of what they try to achieve here, it’s a family club anyway, so they managed to take this side really seriously, which shows you what this club is about.

“650 trees were planted in the last six months alone. There’s a thought behind everything, it’s not just the 11 players on the pitch on a Saturday.

“They’re building some greenhouses around the training ground and some beehives, and I think the big message is education.

“I wasn’t aware until I came to England about the possibilities, so I think it’s massively important for the next generation to be on board and realise what change they can make in the future.”