12 minute read
Interview - VivoPower Tottenham Hotspur
TO DARE IS TO DO
Photo Credit: Tottenham Hotspur/Getty Images
Photo Credit: Tottenham Hotspur/Getty Images
Sustainable Business Magazine speaks to Kevin Chin, CEO of VivoPower, and Donna Marie-Cullen, Executive Director of Tottenham Hotspur, about sustainable energy solutions in sport, raising awareness in the local community, and the future of sustainability.
By Daniel Baksi
In late November, Sustainable Business Magazine visited the ‘world’s most sustainable stadium’, home to London’s Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. A familiar name among football fans and non-football fans alike, Tottenham Hotspur is setting the pace when it comes to decarbonization, recognized earlier this year as the top-performing Premier League club in the so-called ‘Green League’ as part of a study carried out by BBC Sport and the UN-backed Sport Positive Summit. In January 2021, Tottenham Hotspur announced that it had become a signatory of the UN Sports for Climate Action Framework, underlining the club’s commitment towards a low-carbon future for football and the wider sports sector.
VEIN OF OPPORTUNITY
On the day of our attendance at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the club were hosting an event to celebrate the club’s partnership with leading sustainable solutions company VivoPower, renowned for its international battery technology, electric vehicle, solar, and critical power services. Founded as recently as 2014, VivoPower has undergone a rapid rise, with its current operations stretching from Australia to Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. “Initially, the strategy was to focus on solar development,” explains Kevin Chin, CEO of VivoPower. “We started in Australia, and quickly established that the market wasn’t quite ready, and a little bit too small. We then started to look into the US, where we struck a vein of opportunity, growing the business from zero to just under $20 million of profits within two years.”
Despite this seemingly steep trajectory, VivoPower’s journey has not been without challenges. In January 2016, given the popularity of solar on the stock market, the company took the decision to IPO. By the time they did, in December 2016, Donald Trump had assumed his place in the White House, with tariffs on solar following shortly after. “Our timing was awful,” Mr. Chin says of the company’s rapid rise and fall, culminating with 2020 and the arrival of COVID-19. “We were deeply mired in the relegation zone, to use a football analogy, because our stock price was below $1,” he continues. “If you don’t remedy that, within three months, you get relegated from the NASDAQ into what’s called the OTC Pink Sheets, Wolf of Wall Street territory – and you don’t want to end up there. Thankfully, with a team, we executed on a hyper turnaround plan.”
That turnaround plan proved crucial, helping to shape VivoPower as it exists today. “The strategy didn’t make sense anymore, because solar had become super-competitive because of all the development,” explains Mr. Chin. “We pivoted the strategy to think about, ‘okay, how can we benefit and add value for our customers, from not building and developing solar farms per-se, but by helping them to move towards net-zero decarbonization?’” VivoPower’s new
Photo Credit: Tottenham Hotspur/Getty Images Photo Credit: Tottenham Hotspur/Getty Images
Photo Credit: Tottenham Hotspur/Getty Images
strategy brought a focus on off-road vehicles, for use in mining, industrials, and utilities. “We had a captive business in that space already, and we saw that there was very little by way of competition,” continues Mr. Chin. “Everyone’s focused on the glamorous on-road, on competing with Tesla. We couldn’t afford to do that, and we didn’t think it made sense.”
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
By late Autumn last year, VivoPower completed its pivot with the purchase of Tembo, a Netherlands-based company specializing in battery-electric and off-road vehicles. “We got out of the relegation zone,” says Mr. Chin. “I think our stock price hit $24 at one point, within seven months, so we were in the Champions League positions. Since then, it’s been the realities of working on a hyperscale – which looks glamorous on the face of it, but it’s a lot of hard work behind the scenes. We’ve signed just over $750 million of commitments in orders for the electrification solution for vehicles.” He continues: “Now, the challenge is how do we scale up quickly, but accurately, to meet that demand?”
As one of the most sustainable clubs in world football, when the opportunity arose to work with Tottenham Hotspur, VivoPower couldn’t refuse. The latter’s role encompasses everything from vehicle electrification, to converting the club’s training ground facilities to rely upon more sustainable sources of energy. “That includes solar, micro grids, heat pumps, and the lights,” explains Mr. Chin, who already has one eye on the future. “The third part, which will come later, is the reuse of the batteries,” he says. “In electric vehicles, the most expensive component is the battery, but the interesting thing is that when the battery reaches the end of its useful life, it typically still has 70-80% charge capacity. To use a football example, the Ajax Amsterdam stadium is fully powered by second-life Nissan LEAF batteries. There’s a circular economy dynamic.”
For Tottenham, the partnership is not only a showcase for the club’s longstanding commitment to sustainability, but an opportunity to identify solutions for the sector as a whole. “VivoPower specifically concentrate on industries that are significantly more difficult to get to net zero,” says Donna Marie-Cullen, Executive Director of Tottenham Hotspur. “Football is one of those. We have high energy use – even though it’s green energy, and we use solar lights on the pitch – and we water pitches.” Since the partnership was announced in February of this year, VivoPower’s experts have been busy conducting a review of the club’s stadium and training ground facilities. Fast-forward to the present, and focus is turning towards the implementation of the solutions that are most suited to Tottenham’s needs. “We’re about to build a media house, and it makes sense to include heat pumps within that,” continues Ms. Marie-Cullen. “We have extensive roofs, so providing that they can take the weight, we’ll be expanding our use of solar panels. Another solution we’re keen on is car ports. The idea is that we’re all starting to drive electric cars, so you’ll need to be able to drive into a carport charger. In hot countries, they’re a no brainer; here, we have to work a bit harder.”
RAISING CONSCIOUSNESS
In September 2021, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium hosted ‘Game Net-Zero’: the world’s first ever net-zero carbon elite level football match. Held in partnership with Sky, the aim of was to raise awareness around sustainability among the fanbase. “You are the greenest club, where do you go next?” asks Ms. Marie-Cullen. “Where we need to
Photo Credit: Tottenham Hotspur/Getty Images go next, actually, is to augment the message, and to use the fact that we have this amazing platform and reach. Through all our partners, all our channels, all our exposure, we need to be out there pushing the message in in a positive way.”
In Game Net-Zero, Tottenham found a way to achieve exactly that. “We asked everyone to make a change,” continues Ms. Marie-Cullen. “Everybody had to think how they were going to travel to the match. Our team coach is now run on biofuel, the players drove their electric cars to the training center that day, and we had a 94% increase in choice of vegan options on the menu. It’s that level of consciousness that just makes people more aware. If you make it easy, put the option up-front, raise the level of awareness, you get the results.”
As it looks to push the message, Tottenham is already feeling the support of its fanbase. “The fans are with us on this journey, and they’re proud of our green credentials,” says Ms. Marie-Cullen. “Likewise, the partners we bring on board are all making changes along the way, and they are part of that narrative with us.” Ms. Marie-Cullen is optimistic that the work to promote sustainability is already starting to bear fruit. “We’ve noticed it in small ways,” she says. “We get more requests about bicycle racks. We’re getting more take up on vegan food options. When we do our waste removal, we’re seeing that we’ve got the beer cups back in recycling. They’re all playing their part.”
COMMUNITY AND CREATIVITY
The work does stop with the referee’s whistle, however. “Another great benefit we’re going to get from VivoPower is the installation of solar power on the roof of Lilywhite House, the set of offices linked to the stadium,” explains Ms. Marie-Cullen. “We sponsor a school on levels two and three of that building, a unique model where the brightest kids from one of the poorest areas in the country are taught by the tutors of private schools. It’s phenomenal model.”
Photo Credit: Tottenham Hotspur/Getty Images
She goes on: “They had two thirds of the cohort get Oxbridge University places, and it was named State Sixth Form College of the year in Sunday Times. They’re remarkable, and the kids remarkable.”
The work on Lilywhite House is another opportunity to introduce the significance of sustainability. “When the engineers go on the roof, we’re going to take the kids with us on that project, particularly those who are focused on a career in engineering, or simply just passionate about climate change,” explains Ms. Marie-Cullen. “The staff at VivoPower will join us there, and they will be so motivational for those kids, and the kids will be able to see the project delivered at the same time.”
Another component of Tottenham’s sustainability efforts is their contribution to the redevelopment of the so-called Northern Terrace, an important heritage asset within the North Tottenham High Road Conservation Area. The area is renowned for its preservation of an almost in-tact 19th century townscape, including a historic linear continuity of buildings either side of the high road. “We’ve bought every one of the Northern Terrace buildings along the road there to bring them back into useful life,” says Ms. Marie-Cullen. “You can make buildings better, more efficient, and more environmentally friendly when you build them new. But then don’t forget the old buildings, because, if you bring them back to life, you’ve kept all that substance and materials – notwithstanding the bits you can’t touch, like the heritage.”
“At Paxton 17, we’re going to create a whole mini-district,” she continues. “The buildings are all in the process of being restored. They’re very old-fashioned houses, with small rooms: they will be ideal for one- or two-man entrepreneurial firms, or for creative industries. Behind that, we’ll put in a linear building so that we start to attract local bakeries, but also podcast studios, and musician studios. Crafts, creativity, and music: that’s what Tottenham’s all about.”
NEW HORIZONS
In the wake of the of the COP26 conference, held in Glasgow earlier this year, VivoPower sense a growing momentum when it comes to sustainability. “The political and regulatory landscape has completely changed,” says Mr. Chin. “But now also, the dynamic that’s driving sustainability and renewable energy goes beyond politics and regulation. With respect to climate change, it’s pervasive across corporate boardrooms, it’s pervasive
Photo Credit: Tottenham Hotspur/Getty Images
across society. That’s an immensely powerful force. Australia is a great example, in this regard: three Prime Ministers in Australia in the last 10 years have lost their role, because they’ve veered too far towards green, or too far towards coal. But you’ve seen a shift, particularly post-COP26, where the current Conservative government is embracing electric vehicles, and embracing net zero. That hasn’t been the case before. It goes beyond politics; it goes beyond the government. It’s too strong a tailwind.”
In the future, it’s hoped that VivoPower’s partnership with Tottenham can be a launching-pad for further projects within the sports sector. “As far as growth horizons are concerned, for the next two years, our key objective is to propagate our solutions globally, in the sectors that we want to focus on,” says Mr. Chin. “Off the back of our relationship with Spurs, we’ve had other franchises approach us in the US, across a range of different sports. While it may not be such a big sector as mining, for instance, it’s very high profile with great reach, and from a impact standpoint, it’s really additive to what we’re trying to do elsewhere.”
“If we look out to the second growth horizon, in the subsequent two years, we want to sort of build out the third leg of the sustainable energy solution, which is the battery recycling,” continues Mr. Chin. “That’s going to really come to the fore at that juncture, because in a mining context, most vehicles only last one or two years. There’s going to be whole flood of batteries that need to be repurposed.” Looking out to a third horizon, Mr. Chin continues: “With reference to our whole purpose of helping our customers to achieve net zero, I think we’re going to see hydrogen become an increasing part of the energy complex. In terms of range extension for your battery electric vehicle, there’s already a portable hydrogen pack solution. It’s about understanding and embracing new technologies that will plug into our solution stack, so that we genuinely can say to our customers, ‘we can help you achieve net zero’.”
For Tottenham, the goal is to remain at the top of the league when it comes to sustainability. “Competition is healthy,” says Ms. Marie-Cullen. “As a football club, we’re built on a competitive basis. We’re top of the Green League at the moment, and I have no doubt others will look to knock us off it – so we’ve got to keep up in our game, and that’s got to be a good outcome all round.” c
