Taranaki's landscape is unique and the region’s vision for RWC 2011 is to protect it.

Rugby World Cup 2011 offers a unique opportunity for the region and Host City New Plymouth to raise the bar in terms of the impact of major events on the regional environment.

Taranaki is home to both a unique natural environment and a vibrant major events calendar. The Tournament will be used to create a significant legacy of sustainability that will shift attitudes and behaviours about the footprint and impact of major events. 

Prioritising environmental responsibility around the Tournament will deliver a range of benefits for the community, fans and the region. Action plans have been developed, focusing on these four regional priorities:

• Waste Minimisation
• Sustainable Transport
• Energy Efficiency
• Raising Community Awareness

The environmental responsibility programme for Rugby World Cup 2011 (RWC 2011) is designed to ensure New Zealand is a good, responsible host and organiser of a major event and to maintain New Zealand’s reputation for good environmental standards. The programme is:

• Regionally driven
• Responsible
• Effective and efficient
• A legacy for communities and regions.
• Taranaki hosts a number of major sporting and cultural events every year and a legacy of RWC 2011 will be new ways of reducing the environmental impact and associated costs of staging these events. 

What’s Taranaki doing to make RWC 2011 green?

• We’re implementing a comprehensive waste reduction strategy.
• We have transport plans in place to encourage people to arrive at matches through shared and sustainable means of transport, in line with New Plymouth’s Model Walking and Cycling Community status. With a target of 30% of ticket holders using public transport.
• We’ve captured baseline data of the energy and water consumption at Stadium Taranaki when it is at maximum capacity for future planning purposes to reduce use of these resources.
• We’re aiming to increase community awareness and educate attendees through pre-event marketing and publicity, visibility of recycling bins, volunteers and event announcements.
• We’re looking to introduce public space recycling facilities at key locations in New Plymouth.
• We’re working in partnership with Rugby New Zealand 2011 Ltd towards achieving the vision of an environmentally sustainable Tournament.