We all know that we need to lead a more sustainable way of life if we are to help keep climate change in check. However, it’s easy to forget that going to watch our favourite teams in action every week creates a carbon footprint.

Sports leagues across the world are recognising their role in promoting and supporting the sustainability message as they seek to reduce their impact on the environment. Greener stadiums, supporter education and community initiatives are some of the ways they have sought to redress their carbon footprint. Great examples of this are:

Johan Cruyff Arena

In Holland, the Johan Cruyff Arena is home to Ajax Football Club and a climate neutral stadium. It is powered by 4,200 solar panels and a wind turbine while excess energy is stored using 148 Nissan Leaf car batteries. Rainwater is re-used to water the field, and grass cuttings are fed to local sheep and turned into cheese.

The New Lawn Stadium

The first carbon neutral football club and the greenest on the planet, is Forest Green Rovers who play in England. A pitch irrigated with rainwater, a mower powered by solar panels on the stadium roof and a kit made from bamboo are just a few of their many initiatives. A new stadium will soon be built made entirely from wood that promises to further enhance the clubs sustainability and biodiversity.

Green NFL Stadiums

When it comes to low carbon footprint stadiums, the NFL also leads the way with several sites boasting impressive green credentials. The New York Giants Metlife Stadium, Philadelphia Eagles Lincoln Financial Field and The Baltimore Ravens M&T Bank Stadium are some of the most energy efficient and sustainable in the league.

Perhaps the most impressive of all however, is the Mercedes Benz stadium in Atlanta, which is the first professional sports venue in the US to achieve LEED Platinum Certification. Unique features that target energy reduction, renewable energy, stormwater management, and water efficiency were all incorporated into the stadium design.

Can the NFL do more to reduce its carbon footprint?

While greener NFL stadiums are welcome, game days inevitably create a large amount of pollution and waste. Fans driving to the stadium, energy and water usage, plus food and packaging waste all have an impact on the environment.

While supporters at this year’s Super Bowl cheer on the Packers, Bucks, Chiefs or whoever else your Super Bowl bet is on, they can also celebrate the greenest Super Bowl ever. The SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, thanks to NFL Green, will be the greenest professional sports event in America.

What is NFL Green?

Created back in 1993, NFL Green is the league’s environmental program which aims to not only mitigate the environmental impact of the NFL, but create a green legacy in each community that hosts Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, and NFL Draft.

These hands-on projects create a lasting difference in each host community, long after the event is finished. Examples of these schemes include:

Food Recovery

The Super Bowl generates huge quantities of food and beverages, much of which is not consumed. Partnering with local food banks and event managers, NFL Green ensures unserved food and beverages are donated to help feed those in need. 

Recycling and Waste Management

Waste diversion programs are designed to increase recycling and composting of all appropriate waste and reduce the amount sent to landfill.

Community Greening

NFL Green has incorporated community greening projects into the management of Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, and the Draft by working closely with local community organizations and parks and recreation departments. Projects include tree planting, restoring habitat, engaging in reforestation projects and creating community gardens and green spaces for kids to play.

A more sustainable future

There is still much to be done when it comes to reducing the carbon footprint of the NFL, but there is no doubt that teams are pulling in the right direction. 

The Philadelphia Eagles, thanks to a concerted recycling effort, send only 1% of match day waste to landfill, everything else is recycled or repurposed. 

Atalanta’s Mercedes Benz stadium is located near a public transport hub, has electric recharging points, pedestrian walkways and even a bike valet program to encourage alternate ways to arrive at the game.

Soldier Fields, home to the Chicago Bears, has increased its recycling and composting and serves more locally grown food, donating unused foods to homeless shelters.

The Levi’s Stadium, home of the 49ers, has a solar array that produces enough power over the year to offset its use during the season. The green roof technology used also increases insulation and decreases heating and cooling costs. 

Sustainable stadiums are not the sole answer however, the most vital part of a greener NFL requires spectators to buy into the vision and do their bit come game day. But as green technology and education improves, the environmental impact of the NFL will continue to fall, creating a more sustainable long-term future for football and sport in general.

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When Masdar, the space-age city in Abu Dhabi was in its planning stages, architects from Europe, building suppliers, advisors and energy creators were agog. A lot of purportedly “green building” was to take place and billions in contracts for wild dreams were to be awarded.

It was the same sort of energy surrounding Better Place the promised all electric car company that got almost a billion in investment which was squandered in all the wrong places. While Better Place was a good idea with a bad plan, Masdar was a bad idea with a good plan. With Masdar I always felt it was a story of the king not wearing any clothes, or like the meltdown of Amy Winehouse. All the players in the story were more than happy to go along with the lie because it was in their interest for the project to go ahead.

Masdar, an $18 billion experiment in sustainable living, was supposed to be the world’s first zero energy city. No building can be zero energy. Every building, village, town, city we create cannot be sustainable or perfectly environmental or zero energy. When we build on the environment, once a desert, forest or grassland, it is changed, maybe forever. 

Masdar was also supposed to be liveable. When we sent a reporter there some years ago no people were in sight. We had one dispatch once from a student who was staying there and when she talked with us it felt like she was talking to from a closet.

Green building technology in the eyes of the planet is a bit of an oxymoron in my opinion especially when the people running the technology show are coming in with Western Silicon Valley ideals that are really incompatible with how I think future cities should look in the Middle East.

Fast Company points out the problem: “The Masdar City model seems difficult to reproduce: too isolated, too expensive, too empty. The embryo town appears rather as a symptom of the obsession of a state with regard to its future. What will become of this territory, once the hydrocarbon reserves underneath its soil are depleted? In response, the frenzied builders attempt to inscribe life in a permanent fashion on a land that seems hostile to human existence. It is about facing the fear of death by building quickly (an “instant city”), to help transition to an Emirates that is a techno-ecological leader. Masdar City is meant to be the laboratory. Opening soon . . . one day.”

Or never?

If we want to create progress in the Middle East in green building, architects, planners and investors need to move away from trendy ideas (shipping containers – read why we think they suck!) to going back to relationships with local traditions and cultures.

A few good places to start building greener in the Middle East:

Hassan Fathy was an Egyptian visionary architect who used local building materials to create relatable, affordable, comforting green buildings.

Mashrabiya is an aesthetic concept in the Middle East which creates shade and privacy and mitigates heat islands passively in buildings.

The Windcatchers of Yadz offer a fabulous, local solution to cooling rising temperatures that can go up to 50 degrees C in the Middle East.

Start with these few resources for a more modest approach before a layer of green technology or western ideology approaches Middle East architecture. 

The post The future of green building in the Middle East looks backward appeared first on Green Prophet.

Even the mayor came out to inaugurate Tel Aviv’s living laboratory and environmental sciences showcase on May 21, 2014.

The newly inaugurated building at Tel Aviv University practices what it preaches. As students occupy themselves with the challenges of our era, they have a real-time laboratory in which to conduct experiments, demonstrations, and research.

Working with Axelrod-Grobman Architects and Chen Architects, Geotectura carefully designed the interior to optimize natural lighting and ventilation, and to use just the right amount of renewable energy without generating waste. Under floor heating produces just enough warmth to keep people comfortable at their own level, but not enough to heat vacuous spaces.

A three-story EcoWall with a series of steel columns, pathways and terraces reaches down the building’s southern facade.

Related: Construction breaks ground on Israel’s Greenest Building

This wall – a visible highlight of the multifaceted project – has multiple functions, namely to protect the building from noise, pollution and excess sunlight, to generate thermo-solar energy through a sires of tubes in the wall that heat water (and also activates the building’s air-conditioning system independently of the national energy grid,) and to act as a real-time showcase of the groundbreaking work undertaken at PSES.

Small terraces or labs are built into the cage-like EcoWall, which we think is such a brilliant concept. This space is visible to everyone – students, researchers and even visitors, creating a spirit of collaboration and sharing and creating a sense of accomplishment and wonder that everyone can share.

A smart network of computer-controlled LED bulb surface on the eye-catching capsule that projects information and data to great distances. This allows passengers in cars or buses on Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv to access some of the information displayed.

During the design and construction phase reviews, PSES got high scores from the U.S. Green Building Council, and it seems the building is on track to achieve LEED Platinum – the absolute highest certification possible.

The post Israel’s green LEED Platinum building – Porter School of Environmental Studies appeared first on Green Prophet.

We’ve been waiting for this happy moment since November 2008 when Geotectura together with Axelrod-Grobman Architects and Chen Architects first won a prestigious international competition to design TAU’s Porter School of Environmental Studies. After years of information gathering and preparation, the firm is finally breaking ground on what they hope will be Israel’s very first LEED Platinum certified building.

Although there are few precedents in Israel’s architectural history, the designers and PSES have approached this project with an uncompromising commitment to reducing its environmental impact. From brownfield rehabilitation to the most advanced energy and water saving techniques, the PSES EcoBuilding’s groundbreaking design is bound to inspire a whole new era of sustainable development.

It was necessary to first rehabilitate a brownfield site on the Tel Aviv University campus before construction could begin and the building has been strategically oriented in accordance with local climatic conditions.

Energy for the project may be derived from a 50KW Photovoltaic solar system and chilled beam cooling technology will keep the interior nice and cool during Israel’s scorching hot summers.

The building’s facade optimizes the amount of natural light that enters the building, and though the footprint in relatively low, there remains a tremendous sense of expansion.

State of the art water saving techniques have been incorporated into this project. Not only will the building act as a “cup” for rainwater, but gray and black water will be separated so that the gray water can be recycled, and the building’s green roof will ensure the right kind of drainage.

This is an extraordinary example of what can be achieved when good planning, good will, and good old perseverance come together. We can’t wait to see the finished product!

:: Geotectura

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