The London Borough of Haringey has been awarded £85,000 from the Mayor of London’s Local Energy Accelerator (LEA) for Alexandra Park and Palace Charitable Trust to explore projects to make the Palace greener and, in the future, a producer of its own ‘clean energy’.

The funding will enable the charity to assess the feasibility of a range of energy saving and clean energy generating measures, including:

• using clean energy, such as ’heat recovery’ from the ice rink, to heat other areas of the building
• replacing existing gas systems with smart technology and low carbon energy sources, such as air and ground-source heating options
• building improvements such as draught proofing, increasing insulation and energy efficiency

The feasibility studies form part of the ongoing work to make the Park and Palace greener. Recent initiatives include installing LED lighting across the main spaces within the Palace to reduce the carbon footprint of the Palace by 134 tonnes of carbon per year. Over 50 lights along Alexandra Palace Way have been converted to LED, solar powered lights are being trialled in the Park, whilst the Palace has gone plastic cup free at all major events. This is alongside ongoing fabric maintenance and repairs, such as glazing and draught proofing, a range of projects across 196 acres of award-winning parkland and environment themed learning opportunities for young people via the Palace’s Creative Learning team.

The Local Energy Accelerator (LEA) is a £6million programme providing expertise and support to organisations to develop clean and locally generated energy projects. It is co-funded by the Mayor of London and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Emma Dagnes, CEO of Alexandra Park and Palace Charitable Trust: “We are delighted to have been awarded this funding. We have made huge strides in recent years to reduce our impact on the environment by improving our infrastructure and trialling new technology. But now is a time to accelerate further and explore more opportunities to ensure Alexandra Park and Palace is at the forefront of a greener society.”

Shirley Rodrigues, Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy said: “It’s brilliant to see how much work has been done to make the historic Alexandra Park and the Palace greener. This funding will enable them to deliver even more energy saving measures and make their building and the surrounding area more environmentally friendly.”

Haringey Council is supporting the funding process in its role as Alexandra Palace’s Corporate Trustee. Cllr Mike Hakata, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Climate Action, Environment and Transport said: “We’re passionate about building a fairer, greener borough, and are already taking action to reduce our emissions such as retrofitting all council homes to make them energy efficient. I’m delighted that the council supported Alexandra Palace to secure this funding, which will be a huge boost in their efforts to use clean energy sources. It’s a great example of teams from Haringey working with our partners as we strive to become a net zero carbon borough by 2041.”

Alexandra Palace’s Environmental Sustainability Policy sets out the five strands of work the charity is committed to, in order to ensure the Park and Palace can continue to evolve and grow in a sustainable way:

• REDUCE FIRST Reduce energy use, waste creation and consumption of materials and water across the site
• OUR PEOPLE’S COMMITMENT Listen to, empower and upskill our people to champion green practices in all that we do
• CIRCLE OF COLLABORATION Work with clients, artists, suppliers, service partners, contractors and our visitors and communities to ensure we work towards a more sustainable Park and Palace in a truly collaborative way
• BEING BOLD AND AMBITIOUS Set ambitious targets and investigate innovative solutions with funders and partners and showcase best practice to our peers
• CONTINUOUSLY IMPROVING Develop and improve our strategy and action plan, communicating our progress in a transparent way