Pictures: Kickoff Time for Green Stadiums

Staples Center, Los Angeles

Photograph by David McNew, Getty Images

Los Angeles' Staples Center, home to the U.S. National Basketball Association's Lakers and Clippers and the U.S. National Hockey League's Los Angeles Kings, marked the installation of 1,727 solar panels in 2008 in a ceremony with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The system provides 5 percent of the facility’s energy, and over the next 25 years will remove an estimated 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Staples Center also has switched to efficient lighting, recycles a minimum of 50 percent of its waste, uses green cleaning products, and replaced all of its flushing urinals with water-free versions. In 2010, it was the first U.S. arena to be awarded ISO 14001 certification, which recognized its environmental management system.

When a pro team installs a solar energy array on an arena rooftop, or takes other greening steps, it is leading a historic cultural shift, says NRDC’s Hershkowitz. For the environmental movement, in his view, it is akin to what the Brooklyn Dodgers did to elevate consciousness of the civil rights movement when Jackie Robinson took the field.

Hershkowitz cites polls showing that about 18 percent of the public pay attention to science, while 56 percent follow sports.

"If you want to change the world, you don’t emphasize how you’re different," says Hershkowitz. "You've got to work with the cultural momentum. Sports matters."

Published February 4, 2011

Doha Port Stadium (Planned), Qatar

Illustration courtesy HH-Vision and Albert Speer & Partner

The Persian Gulf nation of Qatar—the world's largest supplier of liquefied natural gas—won its bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in December with its bold commitment to make the event carbon-neutral for the first time, an effort in which stunning stadium design will play a vital role.

(See related: "Photos: Inside Qatar, Host of the 2022 World Cup")

Qatar plans to renovate three existing stadiums and construct nine new ones, incorporating solar energy, sun-shading, and an elaborate public transportation plan. Even though temperatures routinely hover around 38ºC (100ºF) in summer when the matches will take place, Qatar says the zero-carbon solar cooling technology in its stadiums will ensure the fans will feel temperatures no higher than 27 ºC (80ºF.) The plan is for the modular stadiums to be disassembled after the tournament, and moved to create 22 stadiums in developing countries around the world.

The issue of the World Cup's greenhouse gas emissions came under scrutiny last year, when a report commissioned by the South African and Norwegian governments concluded that carbon footprint of the 2010 tournament in South Africa was eight times higher than that of the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The increased burden stemmed primarily from South Africa's heavy reliance on coal for electricity, and a lack of intercity rail or local public transit that required fans to travel by air and bus.

Widely read climate blogger Joe Romm was among those urging the sport to shoot for a higher goal, noting that "the world's soccer tournament promises to remind its audience that they share a planet, a community, and a future as well as a favorite sport."

Published February 4, 2011

Target Field, Minnesota

Photograph by Tom DiPace, AP

With its high-efficiency lighting, a rainwater filtration system for cleaning and irrigation, and the locally sourced and recycled materials used in its construction, Target Field in Minneapolis knocked it out of the park in its bid for sustainability. The new home of the Minnesota Twins became the second high-scoring U.S. ballpark to earn a prestigious LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council when it opened last year. (It edged out the first, Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., by two points.)

The project's environmental efforts began literally from the ground up: One of the first tasks at the stadium site—a former railroad yard and parking area—was to excavate thousands of tons of soil contaminated by petrochemicals, arsenic, mercury, and other pollutants. The dirty job faced dust-ups with local authorities along the way, but ultimately received plaudits from experts in remediation of brownfields. The developers recycled or reused more than 70 percent of the waste created in constructing the stadium.

By reclaiming a downtown site, the field developers nabbed a location that is accessible by rail, bike, and foot. That helps cuts down on what the experts say is the largest energy use associated with big sports—the fuel used in travel.

Published February 4, 2011

Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.

Photograph courtesy Carol M. Highsmith, Library of Congress

Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., marked a breakthrough in environmentally friendly stadium design when it opened in 2008 as the first Major League Baseball park to earn a LEED certification. To help regulate the temperature for fans and reduce the heat released to the environment in notoriously swampy Washington summers, the ballpark has both reflective roofing and a 6,300-foot green roof. And for night games, its field lighting saves an estimated 21 percent in energy over typical stadium lighting.

Located near the Anacostia River, the stadium has taken a number of measures to conserve water. Its landscaping is drought-resistant, its plumbing is designed to save an estimated 3.6 million gallons of water annually, and it has a stormwater filtration system designed to protect the river.

Like many MLB franchises, Washington has taken numerous steps to encourage recycling and trash reduction on game days. Hershkowitz of NRDC says that one of the most important impacts of sports teams' greening efforts is the signal that it sends to the entire stadium supply chain—the makers of clothing, equipment, chemicals used on the field, food and beverages and of course, bottles, plastic cups and cans. "The big impacts don't happen at the stadium," he says. "The big impacts happen when the products are produced."

He says, for example, the MLB demand helped spur the greening efforts of Aramark, a leading services provider to ballparks (not Nationals Park, however), which now promotes use of local ingredients, uses biodegradable serviceware, and even encourages recycling of frying oil. "Sports is informing the marketplace of the direction we are moving in," says Hershkowitz.

Published February 4, 2011

Kaohsiung Main Stadium, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Photograph from Reuters

Known as Dragon Stadium because of its snaking, scaly appearance when viewed from overhead, the 40,000-seat arena that opened to host the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, surpasses any other arena in the world in its reliance on carbon-free electricity. Those "scales" are actually 8,844 solar panels, which generate 1.14 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year—so much energy that the stadium not only is supplying power for itself, but also funneling excess to the Taiwan Power Company. This feature saves 660 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

Planners also angled the horseshoe-shaped stadium toward the south, to take advantage of wind currents for ventilation during the summer. The area surrounding the stadium was turned into an urban park, with wooded and aquatic habitats.

The stadium does not host a team at present, but is mainly a venue for special events such as last fall's Long Teng Cup in soccer, organized by the Chinese Taipei Football Association.

Published February 4, 2011

Lincoln Financial Field, Pennsylvania

Photograph by Julia Robertson, AP

The Philadelphia Eagles may have lost their bid to make the Super Bowl this year, but they are on track to lead the NFL in clean, on-site energy. When the new season begins in September, the club aims to have installed an array of systems to deliver 100 percent of the stadium's energy—2,500 solar panels, 80 vertical wind turbines, and a generation plant that can run on biodiesel or natural gas. SolarBlue, a renewable-energy and energy-conservation company based in Orlando, Florida, is helping develop the resources that are expected to generate more than 1 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity over 20 years, with enough excess to spare to sell back to the local utility. SolarBlue estimates that the savings from this energy are comparable to the emissions of 41,000 cars per year.

Long before the stadium plans, the Eagles had a go green effort that achieved a recycling rate of 31.7 percent in 2009.

NFL Spokesman Brian McCarthy says that although the Eagles are leaders in these efforts, the league is encouraging all teams to get in on the game.

"It is the right thing to do but it’s also good from a business perspective, to be solid corporate citizens," says McCarthy. "We're encouraging all teams to work toward energy efficiency in all facilities—where they practice, their offices, and of course, the most visible place, in the stadiums."

One indicator of the trend: California is attempting to lure an NFL team back to Los Angeles with a proposed $1 billion, 75,000-seat downtown stadium. With a design using 40 percent less steel than other stadiums, integration with mass transit, and use of solar power and reclaimed water it would aim to be the first LEED-certified NFL facility.

Published February 4, 2011

Stade de Suisse, Bern, Switzerland

Photograph by Euroluftbildde, Photolibrary

It's fitting that Switzerland, a country with a super-low carbon-electricity mix, would give the world one of its first green energy stadiums, the Stade de Suisse, in Bern.

Home of the BSC Young Boys football team, the stadium's roof is considered the biggest solar power plant in a country that gets 95 percent of its electricity from low-carbon and carbon-free nuclear, hydropower, and renewables.

The stadium has more than 10,000 solar panels, which under peak sunlight conditions can produce 1.3 million kilowatt-hours of energy a year, saving more than 630 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

In its inaugural year, the Stade de Suisse won the 2005 European Solar Prize for its use of photovoltaic panels.

Published February 4, 2011

EasyCredit-Stadion, Nuremberg, Germany

Photograph courtesy Siemens PTD

Germany may not be the world's sunniest country, but it is the world's leading producer of solar energy—including the power generated on the rooftop of easyCredit-Stadion, which was Nuremberg's venue for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

The 758 solar modules over 1,000 square meters (10,764 square feet) can produce 140 kilowatts of electricity in full sunshine. Siemens, which installed the system, optimized the position of the panels' solar modules for the roof's distinctive shape. The stadium also irrigates its turf using rainwater cisterns.

"This is not going to save the world—let's make that clear," says NRDC's Hershkowitz about stadium greening efforts. "Every day we all are dumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It's not coming from one single source, so everybody has to do something about. Professional sports are industrial leaders and cultural leaders, and that's why it means something that they are embracing environmentalism."

Published February 4, 2011