The San Fransisco Giants are one of the greenest teams in all of major league sports. They play at AT&T Park (see picture on above). Although it may not look it, it is one of the greenest stadiums in the world. The stadium itself runs its scorboard on solar power, and recycles and composts nearly 50% of its waste. In addition it uses eco-friendly napkins, containers, utensils, and toilet paper. The stadium has enough efficiency features to cut the stadiums annual energy and water bills by 50%. Stadiums consume about as much energy as small cities, which means that that amounts to huge savings.
Green stadiums, are becoming increasingly popular in major league sports. Many teams are making their stadiums more energy efficent and also enviormentally friendly. Not only that but this is also raising conciousness amognst the fans. In fact, if the trend continues to grow at its current rate, sporting events may do more advertising for becoming enviornementally friendly than politics.
Given that half out population follows sports on a daily basis, sports has a great influence over the American population. If it were to push enviornmental progress, it might make a huge difference. Sports have had a major influence over the American people for pretty much as long as sports have been invented. They broke racial barriers nearly a decade before the nation as a whole did. It also starting including women before the women had a right to vote.
Green stadiums make sense. The sports team cuts their energy and water bills in half and at the same time help the enviornment. Unfortunatley not all teams see this benefit. For about every new stadium built, there are two more being built that are not energy efficient and enviornmentally friendly. a great example of this is the new Cowboys stadium that averages about $200,000 in monthly utility bills. It uses as much energy as the entire city of Santa Monica California.
Opinion: I think its great that stadiums are starting to make this change. They still use way to much energy but atleast its a start. Given the influence of sports in general, sports promoting "being green" may be just what the country needs to help start it on a greener path. I think its great that stadiums like AT&T park are making this change. If word starts to spread about it I think it will make a huge difference. The only part that confuses me is why stadiums would opt to not make their stadiums as "green" as possible. It decreases the annual bill emmensley, helps the enviornment, and sets a good example for the American public.
Questions:
1) Can you think of any other ways for stadiums to "go green" besides the ones mentioned in this article?
2) Can you think of a reason sports teams would not want to "go green"?
3)Can you think of some other examples of "green" stadiums besides AT&T Park?
I can't say that this is my first time hearing about this, but it still impresses me. Sports stadiums use up a lot of energy, so going "green" is very good for both the environment and the monthly costs to maintain it. The only negative that I see in this is the price to build it originally, but that expense could easily be paid off in the future. I definitely agree that this is an extremely smart thing to invest in, and will help the environment. We need to start relying more on alternate energy sources like this one. Hopefully this will persuade other sports teams to "go green" too, and even spread to whole communities.
ReplyDeleteI had a few questions about this:
1) About how much would it cost to build a new environmentally friendly stadium?
2) When was this stadium built?
3) Are there any down sides to environmentally friendly stadiums, other than the expense of building them?
This totally surprised me. Ben is definitely right about sports influencing millions of people around the country. If they actually start advertising stuff about going green and helping the environment. The worst part of our environmental problems mainly come from us not being aware of what's going on around us. This could be a huge help to the environmental awareness. Sports teams should definitely be doing this, because over time it will save them money and allow them to spend more money on advertising and marketing. Although the Dallas Cowboy's stadium produces a lot of energy, it was also recognized as a "Green" stadium by the EPA. Also, the PHILADELPHIA EAGLES are working on a project that will make them "greenest" stadium in the WORLD!!!! They plan to have 100 wind turbines will be installed along the upper rim of the stadium and 2,500 solar panels on the side and roof of the stadium. For more information about this, check out this link: http://digitalsportsdaily.com/nfc-east/philadelphia-eagles/4917-eagles-going-green.html
ReplyDelete1. The EAGLES!!!! They are putting 100 wind turbines on top of the stadium. How crazy is that?!
3. New Meadowlands Stadium (home of the New York Giants and New York Jets) and the Cowboys Stadium.
Like the Giants need more publicity. But even though I’m against the team itself, these facts that Ben showed us are very cool and intriguing. I wouldn’t have guessed that the sports industry would be one of the first major economical parts to make such a push. An answer to your question: “why stadiums would opt to not make their stadiums as "green" as possible” is probably like “why don’t we use as much alternative energy as we can?” is because even though it saves money in the long run, it is frikin expensive for such a mass production. I can’t even begin to imagine the cost of 100 windmills and 2,500(!!!!!) solar panels for the eagles. And also, considering what a behemoth Cowboy Stadium is, the amount of alternative energy required to lower its cost must be monumental. And what does that compare to by the way? How many hours or days exactly does Santa Monica take to equal that?
ReplyDeleteIn addition, a couple interesting facts I found were “At the Staples Center, home to the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, solar panels provide around 5% of the venue’s total power. If all arenas and stadiums had solar installations equivalent to Staples, they would reduce carbon emissions by about 86.6 million pounds a year—the equivalent of taking about 8,000 cars off the roads, the NRDC says.” That is pretty amazing. (http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2010/09/15/sports-stadiums-going-green/)
Along with that, there is a great article on the US Open too at http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/us-open-going-green-470905
1. There are a couple simple ways like:
Stop using pesticides
Boost recycling rates even more
Provide public transportation
Encourage audience participation
2. Because IT COSTS MONEY! And some teams may be in an area where very little resources (for things like wind and sun power) are available.
3. The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The local recycler agreed to chop off the little metal rim on each 3-tennis ball plastic pop-top canister (all 17,000 to 20,000 of them) so they can be recycled. Also, The paper napkins that had been made from virgin paper are now made with 90% recycled content -- even though the U.S. Tennis Association's supplier at first balked at supplying any napkins made with significant recycled content.
New York Mets Citi Field. The brand new ballpark is built of 95 percent recycled steel, it features energy-efficient field lighting, waterless urinals, and a green roof.
Minnesota Twins, Target Field. Green features include such basics as low-VOC carpets and paints, and the club is using local building materials.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI know that this has been going on with other stadiums like the Eagles stadium, but I did not know that the Giants did this as well. Sports are apart of our everyday life. Sports revolve around me all the time I love sports and this just makes it really cool that the stadiums are going green to save the Earth. 1)I think that these ways that were presented by the San Francisco Giants are the best ways to go green for stadiums. 2) Not really I think they probably just are not aware or do not care really. 3) The only other stadium I can think of is the Eagles stadium.
ReplyDeleteHere is a link expanding on the topic:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/01/19/1434500/florida-marlins-stadium-going.html