Greening Stadiums by Black Art Tech Team

...

Resource Requirements

- Solar panels an LED Lights

- Recycling Bins

- Air Conditioning

- Trash Bins

- Well educated Personnel

- Water Distribution and Recycling System

- Low VOC paints

- FSC certified wood

Background:

By popular demand efforts have always been made to push towards a greener and more environmentally friendly building. Stadiums are far different from everyday commercial buildings as commercial buildings are of use more often than the stadiums. Though expensive, stadiums like these reflect a more modern world with emphasis on sustainability. In 2000, apparently the first stadium to implement such sustainable designs in its construction was the ANZ Stadium in Sidney, Australia. It was the first of its kind built in consideration of its surrounding environment. Suggested by the IOC, it was done to let the world know that an eco-friendly stadium could be built. The top 200 largest stadiums in North America are home to over 11,000,000 fan seats, on average they seat 54,550 while the largest seat about 107,000 and smallest in the range of 30,000. With stats like these, one can imagine the amount of people that show up to watch a game annually.

Many owners of football teams and high ranking investing bodies have seen it fit to make stadiums eco-friendly. In a twist of events, you would think they would be the last people on earth to bring up such an idea as their sole purpose is often to make profit in the millions. Installing solar panels in their stadiums, recycling plastic cups and even composting garbage are just a few of the actions in place to make stadiums environmentally friendly. Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffery Lurie wants to make his venue an environmentally friendly one, New York Giants co-owner Don Mara says he wants “to have the greenest stadium in the NFL”. These owners have all made moves to ensuring a much environmentally friendly atmosphere. It’s not just altruism that is driving these business moguls, these plans put in place will also help the lower denomination. In this day and age everyone is approaching a more sustainable practice, one that will see us moves forward into the modern future. Ceo of NRG, David Crane brought the idea to the NFL with 9$ Billion in revenue with a fleet of coal, gas and nuclear power plants. He explained that in the US solar energy made up for only 1% of energy production, and bringing it into the NFL would allow it to gain popularity. How else but using Americas most popular sport.

Reaction:

It is always hard to find something negative to say about going green and moving to sustainable energy. It is the way forward, as it tends to preserve our future on earth and make it an even healthier one. With the amount of people flooding to stadiums for games every year, one can imagine the amount of bodily contact, spreading of germs and CO emission occurs in just one game. Personally, I support the idea of solar panel powered stadiums, constructed with energy conserving and recycled materials. Come to think of it, if we don’t take care of our surroundings right now, many of what we see today will not available in the far future. Being the trend, businesses, homes and multinational corporations have seen it fit to carry out their processes putting in regard the environment. Aside from its obvious benefit of environmental preservation, it is able to also influence sales of tickets. Due to the low cost materials used in production, money spent of maintenance will not be as much anymore, therefore ticket prices would reduce. Nothing beats the idea of being able to afford tickets for big games such the Super Bowl finals.

Data and Financial Analysis

Implementing an energy reduction program is one that may seem overwhelming, but with proper planning and proper utilization of resources it can be turned into a manageable project. Metering can be done across all resource types; water, energy, electricity and gas. The first step required would be providing a list of major energy systems. Finding out which energy system would take up the most attention and require more concentration is key, in order to set priorities straight. Measurement of energy should be done around the stadiums. This will allow us to track all forms of energy transactions all year round. In going eco-friendly, it is important that you have a proper financial measurement and operating costs to deliver accurate financial statements to the various departments. Energy savings can be calculated by;

- Determining costs of upgrades and installing equipment’s

- Bench mark energy use figure minus the projected use figure of the new equipment

- Create discounted flow models that spread annual costs for equipment and savings from energy upgrades

- Estimate usable lifetime of current equipment’s and new purchased equipment’s

Stakeholders:

Which will be those who are to gain or lose from this costly project. It is hard to say if there will be one who doesn’t benefit from going Green. Those who invest will earn much more than they put in the long run because the money used in the maintenance would be forwarded to sustaining all forms or energy being produced. There will be no use to maintain anymore when you have self-sustaining system in place. The health of those in and around the stadium will be good as well, as they are not exposed to trash, greenhouse gasses and bad water.

REFRENCES

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, September 2008, “Study of Environmentally Responsible Methods of building and Retro fitting Stadiums”

http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/58641/315847657.pdf

Met Life, August 2013,” Sustainability”

http://www.metlifestadium.com/stadium/sustainability

Castalia Homes, July 16, 2013, “Advantages of Green Buildings”

http://www.castaliahomes.com/blog/advantages-disadvantages-green-building/

---------------------------------------------------------------