A much-loved institution of Cheltenham since Victorian times, environmentally-conscious staff at one of the area's best-known destinations for racket sports, East Glos Club, recognised the need for the club to do its bit for the planet back in 2021, by forming its first ever sustainability working group.
Fast forward three years and the club has already made huge strides towards its aim of matching Gloucestershire County Council's ambition to be net zero by 2030, by working with the county's business support network, The Growth Hub Gloucestershire, to identify key areas where it can become more sustainable.
SoGlos caught up with operations manager, Steve Wigg, to hear how expert guidance from The Growth Hub is helping the club achieve its goals, from simple energy-saving practices to innovative ways of reducing waste.
Steve, tell us a bit about East Glos Club and the history of the organisation.
East Glos is a fun, sociable multi sports club for all ages and abilities, located in Cheltenham. It was founded during the reign of Queen Victoria, with its origins dating back as far as 1883. Originally as a cricket club, tennis was first played in 1885 when the bored wives of the cricketers had a court marked out and started playing!
It has survived the challenges of two world wars and a global pandemic and today is stronger and more vibrant than ever, with the racket sports enjoyed by over 2,000 people. We offer tennis, padel, squash and racketball with the recent additions of pickleball and table tennis. We have 28 tennis courts, including clay, astro, hard and grass surfaces, with 17 of them floodlit. We also have four squash courts and three padel courts.
Our coaching programmes are hugely popular with everyone from three-year-old tots to adults, with performance academies existing for those competing in regional, national and international competitions.
The club also hosts large, prestigious events including the LTA under 14 National Grass Championships where the winners go on to play at the All England Club (Wimbledon!), County Week, Squash PSA, Squash Masters as well as many county and club run competitions and events. In 2022, East Glos was regional winner for Club of the Year at the LTA Awards, also finishing in the top three overall.
I’ve personally worked in sports and leisure for over 20 years, starting out as a tennis coach before moving off court into running coaching programmes. Over the past five years I’ve held more operational roles, managing an indoor tennis centre and university facilities. I joined East Glos in 2024 at a very exciting time, with some key developments having been completed already in my short time here and plenty more in the pipeline.
East Glos Club’s vision for the future is to continue to be the premier racket sports club in the region, providing everyone with the opportunity and motivation to participate in racket sports.
Our mission is to build on our previous success by further developing our facilities for club members and the local community; in order to encourage enjoyment, participation and sporting excellence in racket sports, in Cheltenham and the surrounding region.
Why did the club make contact with The Growth Hub in the first instance – what kind of help or guidance were you looking for?
Our sustainability journey began in 2021, when Peter Mitchener, our community relations director and sustainability champion, called on passionate members to help the club become more sustainable. Joined by the groundsman, operations manager and club manager Darren Morris, the working group for sustainability was formed.
The club has been working with The Growth Hub since 2022, when Darren was supported by two of their business navigators to look at strategy, vision, marketing and sales after the Covid pandemic, along with the substantial growth of the business in recent years.
This then developed into a focus on our sustainability goals, after we attended the 2023 Net Zero Conference hosted and organised by The Growth Hub.
How has The Growth Hub team helped the club achieve its sustainability goals?
Over the past few years, the club has made simple but effective changes to become more sustainable, such as recycling glass and food waste, switching off unnecessary lights, installing water-conserving taps and PIR sensors, in conjunction with LED lighting in the clubhouse, corridors, rooms and squash courts. We carried out an energy audit with an external company to highlight all areas of opportunity for efficiency.
The Growth Hub facilitated online meetings to guide us on the different areas where we could highlight and target ways of being even more environmentally friendly and ultimately work towards net zero.
New projects this year included converting seven tennis courts to LED floodlights, supporting 'bike week' and 'no mow May', introducing flower planters to support wildlife and the introduction of a ball recycling scheme that has proved very popular, with over 4,500 tennis or padel balls recycled so far.
In order to engage and get buy-in with the members we reached out for volunteers and set up a sustainability committee, who give up their time to help the club move forward in this area.
What has impressed you most about working with The Growth Hub on the club's sustainability journey?
The Growth Hub has been excellent. Supportive,
knowledgeable and able to provoke thought and discussion with our team.
Through scheduled online meetings, set tasks and an extremely comprehensive tailored spreadsheet, we’ve successfully identified areas for improvement and will
continue to work with the club committees to take it from strength to strength.
