Earlier this year The University of Edinburgh announced that refurbishment of Peffermill’s Hockey Artificial surface would be taking place and we are delighted to announce that works have been completed and the World’s First Carbon Zero ISCC certified hockey pitch is ready for play. The refurbishment, possible thanks to a significant investment by the University, began in July with SPORTEX (with Polytan) to lay a new state-of-the-art artificial turf pitch on Hockey Pitch 2. This enhancement underscores the University’s commitment to supporting elite hockey performance and fostering athletic excellence. Hockey’s first climate-neutral synthetic turf The installation of the new Poligras Paris GT zero surface at Peffermill will provide an elite training facility in the heart of Scotland with the surface originally developed for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The artificial pitch is the world’s first and only carbon zero hockey turf and has also been FIH Innovation-certified for dry hockey. Poligras Paris GT zero from Polytan saves 73 tonnes of CO2 compared to a conventional turf. The turf is made with 80% sugarcane, features a new CO2 optimised backing, and is manufactured in Germany using green electricity. This amazing science ads up to…zero.The Polytan hockey turf has FIH Global certification, which means that top level hockey, like the Olympics, will still choose to use the turf wet, but it has also been FIH Innovation-certified for dry hockey. For hockey around the world this unique ‘play wet / play dry’ crossover performance delivers great flexibility and many benefits. As the FIH transition elite-level hockey to dry surfaces, we see this as a very valuable feature of the Poligras Paris GT zero system. A club can now choose a carbon zero turf that provides Olympic quality when wet and performs better than a current sand-dressed turf when dry. That’s the best of both worlds. We are delighted with the installation of the new Polytan surface at Peffermill. We pride ourselves on high performance at the University and we now have a world leading surface for our players to play on. We are continually looking at ways to develop our facilities to help our students develop and I look forward to following the progress in the months and years ahead. Chris McIntosh Head of Sports Infrastructure & Sustainability Our “FIH Innovation Category Dry Turf Hockey Field” is a milestone in sustainable hockey, as previously, large amounts of water were needed to play professional hockey. With our sustainable system and Polytan’s Turf Glide Technology, the field ensures unbeatably fast ball-rolling behaviour, increased player safety and significantly reduced water consumption. Ashley Appleby Sales Manager at Polytan University Alumni, Sarah Robertson, who was part of Team GB in Paris at the 2024 Olympics said, It is great to see the work that has gone in over the summer at Peffermill on the new hockey surface. I had the pleasure of playing on the same Polytan surface when playing for Team GB in Paris and it was first class. It's fantastic to see Hockey doing it's bit for sustainable sport whilst maintaining top class surfaces, it is important for everybody, I'm proud to see the University leading the way in new innovations and look forward to playing on the new surface soon. This article was published on 2024-10-31
