Aberdeen Football Club have recently added their signature to the UN Sports for Climate Change framework - underlining its intent to become carbon neutral, and are implementing a plan across all areas of operation to meet this commitment.
As part of this, the club say they have recently made a step forward in their aim of reducing emissions by 50% by 2030 with the purchase of a brace of battery-powered mowers from Infinicut. The combination of an SM34 rotary and 34” floating head mower form part of a wider sustainability strategy for The Dons - reducing not just their carbon footprint but noise pollution too.
In charge of this for the fibre-sand stadium pitch is head groundsperson David Nicholson. He said, “From our very first conversation with Bobby McDougall at Infinicut, we could see how the purchase of these mowers would be a fantastic step forward in reducing our fuel usage and improving our green credentials.
“We thought the cut quality of our previous petrol-driven machine would be hard to beat but the cut we get from the SM34, together with the powerful suction, is superb.”
Used for the post-match clean-up cut, another thing that David says has impressed him and the team is the lack of noise lack emitted from the mower, equipped with a UXR lithium battery. “Sometimes it would be half an hour or more before we could resume work after a fixture because of media interviews happening around the ground but with the SM34 we can be out and cutting straight away," he explains.
Also delivered in July 2022 was an Infinicut FL34. “This has been another fantastic purchase and the floating head has without doubt improved the quality of cut and, in turn, had a really positive impact on plant health even in this relatively short period of time,” David said.
"These machines tick a lot of boxes but ultimately do the job of cutting and presenting a first-class surface better than any other machine we’ve used.”