A world-first TGO Gym at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
The key question:
Can TGO rise to the Right Guard challenge, recycling aluminium from aerosol cans to create a world-first TGO Gym?
The heart of the challenge:
The phone rings one day at TGO HQ. It’s a fantastic company called TerraCycle, who believe in eliminating the idea of waste by recycling the ‘non-recyclable’. We’re hooked straight away.
TerraCycle want to know if TGO can make gyms using recycled aluminium. They are collecting thousands of Right Guard aerosol cans across the country and they want to find a stellar sustainability project for this leading brand.
“We’re in!” we say.
TGO’s answer:
We head straight for the drawing board, to sketch out our bespoke design for Right Guard, to complement and enhance their recycling vision.
It’s a no-brainer to include TGO Energy equipment – our cardio pieces that convert human kinetic energy to electricity. We build in charging ports on TGO Energy pieces, so that Right Guard gym users can charge their devices as they work out.
We also want the energy to go much further – so we incorporate a central Rig that gym users can light up by working out on our Energy equipment.
And we think what better home for this unique gym than the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – we already have some TGO kit at the home of the London 2012 Games, so we connect all the right people up. Right Guard are delighted to have their branded gym in such a prestigious location and QEOP are happy to receive a high quality fitness space close to the Olympic stadium, further extending their unique sporting offer to over 5 million visitors per year.
But how to recycle Right Guard’s aluminium? This requires us to go right back to basics – reinventing our equipment design and manufacturing processes, to create a world-first for Right Guard. How can we repurpose the aluminium for best use along side our CE marked steel?
We know that aluminium has great anti-corrosion properties but it’s not as strong as steel, so TGO engineers pinpoint the precise areas on our equipment that are not load bearing. We also find a great use for the aluminium in the sheet metal that provides the outer casing of our cardio pieces. We incorporate aluminium in the TGO Rig too, thickening it where necessary to ensure structural strength.
Working with Right Guard, we use the aluminium from 2500 aerosol cans in total – half at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park gym and half at a second gym in Hemel Hempstead.
There’s a star-studded launch too – with Sky TV’s Marvin Ambrosius and social media fitness influencers, Aimee Buchler and Sarah Malcs. Freddie Flintoff and Jamie Redknapp also pop by to film the Right Guard Challenge for their Sky One show, A League of Their Own.
Right Guard’s and Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park’s feedback:
Peter Tudor, Director of Visitor Services, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, says:
“Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park has over 5 million visitors a year and The Great Outdoor Gym Company has equipment throughout the park. The London 2012 Olympic Games were of course the greenest Games ever, so we have lots of targets around sustainability. Recycled steel [and recycled aluminium] certainly fits into that but so does the idea of recycling your energy – so that you’re charging up your devices at the same time.
“The response to the gym has been great! Of course, this is the Olympic Park, this is where sporting dreams were made – so we like to give people plenty of opportunities to extend their sporting activity.”
Mark Crane, General Manager of Henkel Beauty Care UK and Ireland, says:
‘Right Guard is always working to improve its sustainability programme. The initiative to create the Right Guard AEROCYCLE gym has enabled us to construct an environmentally friendly space from recycled aerosol cans and to contribute a long term, valuable resource for the local community around Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park."
Is sustainable fitness your goal? Then TGO would love to work with you! Contact us today.