Search

In October 2010, the Amway Center became the first LEED Gold–certified designed and constructed professional basketball arena in North America. Today it remains the only NBA arena to be awarded LEED Gold certification within the New Construction standard. The arena uses approximately 25 percent less energy and 40 percent less water than arenas of similar size and type, saving the team hundreds of thousands of dollars each year—including close to $700,000 annually in energy costs alone. As a sports industry leader in advanced green building approaches for venue construction, the Amway Center is a local and national role model for efficiency and environmental stewardship. The Magic have worked hard to spread the green message embodied in their arena to fans nationwide, including through their role as hosts of the 2012 NBA All-Star Game.

When Target Field received its LEED Silver New Construction (NC) certification shortly after opening in 2010—at the time, it was only the second ballpark in the U.S. to receive LEED certification—the U.S. Green Building Council called it the “Greenest Ballpark in America.” But the Twins didn’t stop there: The stadium went on to earn LEED Silver for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (EBOM) the following year.

The Cleveland Indians are among the sports industry vanguard in the installation of onsite renewable energy, among many other greening accomplishments. Their stadium, Progressive Field, was among the first major sports venues in North America to install onsite solar, during the summer of 2007, and the Indians were the first American League baseball team to do so. In 2012 Progressive Field also became the first Major League Baseball stadium to install a wind turbine. While the Indians’ greening work was kick-started by impressive cost savings from their expanded recycling program, it quickly spread to onsite renewables and environmentally preferable purchasing. The Indians also have several green projects on the horizon, with plans in the works for a 4,000-square-foot green roof and solar thermal technology.

In the sports greening space, the Trail Blazers are true to their name as industry leaders in green building and making a business case for environmentally intelligent operations. In January 2010 the Rose Garden Arena became the first professional sports arena in the United States (and in the world) to achieve LEED Gold certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s Existing Buildings standard. Three years later, the Blazers are still achieving incremental resource savings in energy, water and waste each year that continue to greatly benefit the team’s bottom line. To date the Blazers have saved close to $500,000 in pure profit after recovering their up-front green investments in full.

STAPLES Center in downtown Los Angeles is undoubtedly one of the busiest arenas in the world, hosting more than 250 events and nearly 4 million guests each year. The arena is home to four professional sports franchises—the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers, the NHL’s 2012 Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks—and also hosts many high-profile events, including the annual X Games and Grammy Awards. Other notable events include the 2004 and 2011 NBA All-Star Weekends, the 2002 NHL All-Star Game, the 2000 Democratic National Convention, and the 2011 World Figure Skating Championships. Since the arena opened in 1999, STAPLES Center’s operations team has aimed to run it as efficiently as possible. With the help of AEG, STAPLES Center has become a leader in environmentally better practices, boasting a 1,727-panel solar array atop its roof; high-efficiency lighting, equipment, and energy management systems; and waterless urinals, among other initiatives. AEG and STAPLES Center developed an environmental management system (EMS) to guide employees in reducing the environmental impact of STAPLES Center’s daily operations. As a result, the STAPLES Center became the first U.S. arena to receive an ISO 14001 certification in 2010.

The Seattle Mariners have been leading the environmental charge in stadium operations ever since Scott Jenkins, vice president of ballpark operations, joined the team midseason in 2006 and immediately set out to make the stadium’s operations more efficient. Since then, the Mariners have saved nearly $1.5 million in energy costs, and Safeco Field boasts the lowest energy intensity of all the Major League Baseball stadiums that participate in EPA’s EnergyStar program. Jenkins and the Mariners are founding members of the Green Sports Alliance and have received numerous awards for Safeco Field’s environmental initiatives, including the Washington Green 50 Special Leadership Award given by Seattle Business magazine in 2011.

The Miami HEAT have been sports industry leaders in green building initiatives and comprehensive tracking of facility-wide resource use since AmericanAirlines Arena became LEED-certified for existing buildings: operations and maintenance (EBOM) in the spring of 2009. For the better part of a year the HEAT worked on enhancing their operations in a race against the Atlanta Hawks to win the first LEED Certification for an arena in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The showdown culminated in a dead heat when the Green Building Certification Institute, a subset of the U.S. Green Building Council, awarded AmericanAirlines Arena and Philips Arena, the home of the Hawks, LEED certification on the same day, April 7, 2009. With a LEED certification under their belt, and many cost benefits and positive press mentions to boot, the HEAT are now working toward LEED recertification in 2014, which requires improving on all of their 2009 efficiency achievements.

For the first time in the history of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) final four, a sustainability committee was formed in 2011 to integrate ecologically intelligent practices into the event’s planning and production. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) was asked to join as a founding member of the NCAA final four Sustainability Committee, teaming up with LG Electronics, Waste Management, reliant park, the City of Houston and the George r. Brown Convention Center.

The United States Tennis Association (USTA) partnered with NRDC to launch its official greening effort at the 2008 US Open, including the tournament’s first water bottle and aluminum can recycling program, and the greening program has continued to make strong improvements at every Open since. “The commitment and expansion of the US Open Green Initiatives will ensure that the world’s highest annually- attended event is the most environmentally conscious,” said Jon Vegosen, chairman of the board and president, USTA, and chairman of the US Open. “These environmental endeavors have kept the USTA, the US Open and tennis fans in the forefront of the global effort to preserve the environment.”

The 2008 MLB All-Star Game Red Carpet Show featured the longest and greenest red carpet in history, winding up NYC’s Sixth Avenue, made from 100 percent recycled fiber content and manufactured using 100 percent renewable energy from solar and wind sources. The 95,000 square foot carpet was produced at Bentley Prince Street’s California manufacturing facility, which was the first in the country to receive a silver rating from the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB). The carpet was also certified as an environmentally preferable product by Scientific Certification Systems (SCS). Through Bentley Prince Street’s manufacturing processes, MLB avoided the use of 6,300 pounds of fossil-fuel-derived fiber and 162,000 gallons of water during the carpet’s production. In addition, Bentley Prince Street also offset the carbon impact of the carpet by purchasing 480,000 pounds of Green-e certified emissions reduction credits. After the parade, Bentley Prince Street collected the carpet for recycling through its ReEntry 2.0 carpet reclamation program, avoiding landfill disposal for 45,000 pounds of carpet.