Lesson 8: Sustainable playgrounds and sports facilities

Sports and playgrounds climate-ready for the future

Whether playground, football pitch or skate park - public leisure areas are important meeting places in every community. They promote exercise, health, social interaction and quality of life for young and old. But here, too, the question arises: How can such places be designed sustainably? Which materials are durable, safe and environmentally friendly? And how can local authorities do something for climate protection at the same time?

Modern solutions increasingly rely on recycled products - such as safety surfaces made from rubber granulate from used tyres. These not only offer safety during play and sport, but also conserve resources and reduce CO₂ emissions. Administrative staff can play an active role in the planning, procurement and implementation of such projects - and help their local authority to shape a green, healthy and liveable future.

Sustainable municipal action for climate fitness:

Child- and user-friendly design: ensuring safety, play value and attractiveness
Climate-friendly materials: use of environmentally friendly building materials such as rubber granulate
Accessibility & inclusion: Creating access and utilisation options for all people
Multifunctionality: Design areas so that they can be used for sport, play and socialising
Durability & care: choose low-maintenance, weather-resistant solutions to reduce operating costs

Roll film: Ideas for the liveable city of the future: child- and climate-friendly playgrounds.

Administrative assistants support the sustainable planning and realisation of municipal sports and play facilities. They coordinate tenders, review offers, support construction and refurbishment measures and ensure compliance with legal standards. They also inform citizens about participation opportunities and promote awareness of ecological and inclusive design. Their work combines economic, ecological and social requirements to create a sustainable overall concept.

Learning objectives of this lesson:

The most important sustainability criteria for sports and play facilities
Recycled materials and their benefits for play and sports surfaces
Apply measures for accessibility and inclusion in system planning
Planning and decision-making processes in a municipal context
Evaluating practical examples of sustainable refurbishment and new construction

Group work: Inclusion check on playgrounds

A new standard for the accessibility of playgrounds has recently been introduced in Germany, which local authorities must take into account when planning, building and renovating playgrounds. The aim is to give all children and adults - regardless of physical limitations, age or learning ability - equal access to play and leisure activities.

Inclusion means that everyone can actively participate without having to rely on special assistance. The design of the surface plays a key role here: uneven and yielding materials such as sand, gravel or wood chips are almost impossible for wheelchair users to pass through. In contrast, level impact protection slabs made from recycled rubber granulate provide a stable, non-slip and shock-absorbing base.

In addition, soft, warm-feeling design elements in the form of hats, balls or cubes can encourage motor skills and stimulate creative forms of play - even for children with limited mobility. In this way, accessibility becomes not just a compulsory task, but a real added value for the entire community.

You can use a checklist to see how well your local authority is positioned in terms of the inclusion of children's playgrounds.

TaskGo on a tour of discovery in your municipality: take a close look at the playgrounds. Use the checklist to check whether inclusion is sufficiently taken into account. Enter "Yes", "Partially" or "No" for each question. Add examples or ideas for improvement in the right-hand column.

At the end, write a short evaluation (approx. 100-150 words) with your most important observations and suggestions for improvement.

KRAIBURG Relastec makes an important contribution to inclusive playgrounds with its safety tiles. With the EUROFLEX® Inclusion Weeks cities and municipalities are supported.

Fall protection floors: a comparison of sustainability and cost-effectiveness

Playground surfacing must be safe for children, durable and economical at the same time. There are various materials to choose from - from loose bulk material such as sand, bark mulch or wood chips to synthetic fall protection slabs made from recycled rubber granulate (ELT), which are certified in accordance with DIN EN 1177

Economic efficiency studies show: Although fall protection surfaces made of rubber granulate are initially somewhat more expensive to purchase, the additional costs are usually amortised after 2-3.5 years, as they are durable, low-maintenance and resource-saving.

TaskResearch the following fall protection variants:

Sand
Wood chips
Gravel
Fall protection slabs made from tyre rubber granulate

Rate Please rate the variants according to the following aspects (scale: 1 = very poor, 5 = very good):

Acquisition costs
Maintenance effort
Service life/longevity
Climate friendliness (e.g. recycled content, CO₂ savings)
Safety and test standard (e.g. certified according to DIN EN 1177)
Economic efficiency

Reflect Together they determine which variant is advisable from an ecological point of view and which variant is the most economical for municipal budgets in the long term.

Creative workshop: Flooring Designer

Resilient floor coverings made of recycled rubber granules for running tracks, playing fields and playgrounds (indoor and outdoor) are available in numerous designs (optionally with/without fall protection) for every requirement. The surfaces can be provided with coloured EPDM granules for individual design. There are 28 standard colours to choose from. Special custom colours and individual, atmospheric colour mixtures are also available.

To give you an impression of how the different colours look and work in practice, you can try it out with the Flooring Designer try it out for yourself. With just a few clicks, you can upload your own photos of municipal sports facilities, running tracks, playgrounds, etc. and colour them individually.

Idea for the classroom: The best designs for running tracks, playgrounds etc. are sought in class or in working groups.

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Practical workshop: Running track made of rubber granulate

All athletics competitions at the 2022 European Championships were held in Munich's Olympic Stadium on a new synthetic running track made partly from recycled rubber granulate. Gina Lückenkemper won gold in the 100 metres on the certified class 1 track. Decathlete Niklas Kaul took the decathlon crown in the final 1500 metres.

To achieve the perfect balance between sports and body protection functions, the base layer of the elastic running track made of recycled granules, which is prefabricated in the factory and bonded on site, has a coating of polyurethane and new rubber granules scattered on top. This makes it resistant to spikes, UV light and extreme weather conditions.

Custom-made products and special solutions are also possible: for example, a special base layer was used for the run-up to the javelin throw and the last eight metres of the plastic surface were additionally refined. This is to prevent slipping during the javelin step.

For better visualisation there is a Graphic of the structure of the layers of a running track made of recycled rubber granulate.

The class can also choose a Watch short filmwhich shows in fast motion how a running track made of recycled rubber granulate is laid.

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Quiz: Sustainable playgrounds and sports facilities

In a quiz, you can playfully test your knowledge about the advantages and possibilities of sustainable municipal playgrounds and sports facilities. We have prepared ten questions. Several of the four alternative answers can be correct.

Task: Select the correct answer(s) for each of the ten questions. The quiz can be solved individually or in groups. Who is the games and sports champion?

Certificate of participation for pupils and trainees

You can issue students and trainees with a certificate of attendance to document their successful participation in the eight lessons. The Free template for the certificate can be requested here without obligation.

Free sample pack with teaching material to accompany your lessons

To better convey the lesson content in class, you can free of charge and without obligation request a sample pack with material samples, information brochures and demo products.

The package contains samples of coloured rubber granulate, samples of high-quality recycled products made from tyre rubber granulate and a sample box with samples of sustainable floor coverings for roofs.

I hereby request a free, no-obligation
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