Fire the grills and ready the face paint, because it’s football season! While most Americans choose to enjoy this pastime in the comfort of their own homes, many dedicated fans cheer on their favorite teams at their home stadiums. Throughout the years, stadiums have become a focus of architects because of their attraction to the public. Their uses range from football games, baseball games, concerts, and even Olympic Games. These structures have become a symbol of pride and a great show. However, as the needs of the public, the team, and the planet have changed, the structures themselves have shown amazing innovation and proven that humans can create something for recreation keeping the health of the environment in mind. This has been a huge new phenomenon in the stadiums of Football teams in the United States, but can also be seen in other stadiums across the globe. The following are a few examples of stadiums that have either planned to take steps to be greener or were built to be a sustainability beacon.
Philadelphia Eagles—Lincoln Financial Field
Many stadiums are either under construction, being planned, or have had environmentally friendly additions. One notable stadium already tackling and succeeding in its sustainability planning is the Philadelphia Eagles Stadium which has even been praised by President Obama himself.2 The plan is to line the stadium with wind turbines to power this pride of the Eagles. To minimize waste, everything that can be recycled, from “tarps to cooking oil,” is recycled. The Eagles have also made an agreement to solely purchase their power from SolarBlue at a fixed rate for the next 20 years, saving the Eagles $60 million. Their “Go Green” program aims to set a positive example to those who enjoy the games it holds as well as other stadiums by aiming to use 100% renewable energy and promoting recycling and reduction of one’s carbon footprint. They “offset” the emissions of travel by planting a well calculated 1,500 trees around the stadium3. They have been using biodiesel from their own food production byproducts to power equipment and this is part of their plan to power their stadium from 100% renewable energy.4 The stadium even obtained 97% of its energy in 2008 from renewable resources.5 Although plans to install wind turbines and solar panels have been on the way for a while, they have yet to actually accomplish this magnificent feat. They have recently partnered with NRG to further their environmental goals6.
University of North Texas—Apogee Field
The green stadium movement is not only present in the NFL and other professional sporting leagues, but also in collegiate sports. The University of North Texas Apogee Stadium was awarded as “the first newly constructed collegiate football stadium in the nation to achieve the highest level of LEED certification.”8 LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, was created by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in 2000. It was designed to reward sustainably designed, constructed, and managed buildings.9 Apogee Stadium’s sustainability efforts include installing three wind turbines to power the entire facility and a landscape made up of 50% native plants to the Texas area. Moreover, 20% of the material used to build the stadium was actually recycled materials which are not in the stadium instead of taking up space in a landfill and then the stadium’s contractor further recycled 75% of the construction waste so that it too would not end up in landfill. The stadium also encourages attendees to be more environmentally friendly by conveniently placing bus stops, secure bike storage, and parking for carpools. Almost all the indoor spaces that are frequently occupied use natural lighting, saving electricity.10 This stadium is a prime example of how big goals can become a reality. The great thing is that this does not only affect college football enthusiasts, it also affects people that attend the many high school and community events that Apogee Stadium holds.
London Olympic Stadium
Environmental progress is an international effort. The star of the summer of 2012 was the London Olympic Games and they were promoted as an “environmentally friendly” event. According to the official website, the games claimed to showcase sustainability in their food, venue, recycling program, and many other important aspects of the event.12 There is only one fourth of the steel used in the previous Olympic stadium in Beijing.13 Such a feat needed a lot of planning and not everything goes as planned. Although other innovative creations14 made it onto the finished product, a large wind turbine did not15 and this may have caused the stadium to fall short of their 20% renewable energy goal, only achieving approximately 11%.16 With sustainability in mind, the stadium was built to be partially deconstructed after the Olympics, thus London’s plans for the stadium after the Olympics is also very relevant. The plan is to leave the grounds even more environmentally sound than it was before construction, turning it into a large park on top of being a functioning sports arena.17 There will be many hiking and cycling trails to promote active appreciation for the environment!18
These are only three examples of environmentally friendly stadiums. There are many more stadiums that are already becoming greener, such as the Washington Nationals stadium. The dragon-like World Games stadium in Taiwan is another international example of sustainability-oriented stadiums—the scales of the dragon are actually solar panels that power the stadium!19 There are also many ambitious plans for even greener stadiums, such as the Incheon Stadium in Korea,20 the Dalian Shide Stadium (Garden Stadium) in China,21 and the new San Francisco 49ers stadium being built in Santa Clara, CA,22 along with newly built stadiums like that of the Washington Nationals in the Washington, DC area.23 There are many other efforts to become more environmentally friendly in sporting events without actually changing the structure of the stadium, such as the San Diego Chargers’ and New England Patriots’ new recycling programs in the NFL.24 Stadiums and other stages for national and global events are great showcases of the ability of modern technology and the innovative minds of the human race. By bringing the attention of the public to sustainability through national, regional, or local pride, these amazing structures of recreation can unite people with a common interest and set a positive environmental example as well. This is definitely a huge positive step towards a better and brighter future.
