Grimm advised planners who are hoping to make their events have less impact on the environment to begin at the infrastructure. “Infrastructure changes that are green can really save money and show a respect and service to the athletic goals of the site. In the case of the Eugene ‘08 Trials, eliminating the need for diesel generators saved money and created a healthier experience in support of their athletes’ maximum performance,” she said. “Changes should come from the top down and be fully integrated into the existing activities. Also, promote it. Promotion is education. It’s no secret that the world is now awake to the environmental crisis we face. By staying ahead of the wave, creating efficiencies, reducing pollution and waste, encouraging all individuals to participate in “green” initiatives, we are showing a commitment to our future athletes of the world.”

Venues Going ‘Green’
From the largest stadiums to the smallest convention centers, some venues have taken on the task of being “green”—providing “green”-minded sports planners with like-minded venues that promote sustainable sporting events.

Denver’s Pepsi Center, Colorado’s largest indoor sports and entertainment venue, has become the first sports arena in the United States to claim “100 percent green” status, with arena officials announcing that they will buy enough renewable energy to offset all electricity used at the arena, said Dave Jolette, vice president of venue operations for Kroenke Sports, the company that owns the center. Other “green” firsts include a program to encourage fan involvement in environmental issues called “Play Clean,” a package of improvements to the nine-year-old facility and the arena’s involvement in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Climate Leaders program. The EPA’s Climate Leaders program is an industry-government partnership that works to inventory and reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a company-wide basis to develop comprehensive climate change strategies. “In the area of fan involvement, we think ‘Play Clean’ also could be an industry leader,” Jolette said. “The ‘100 percent green’ status we’ve achieved through the use of renewable energy certificates is a big commitment. This program is more than enough to power a scoreboard or a lighting system; it’s enough to cover all the electricity used at the Pepsi Center.”

The center will also be the first major entertainment venue in Colorado to provide single-stream recycling of plastic cups, all bottles and clean paper products, Jolette said, who added that an estimated 20,000 pounds of recyclable material will be recycled at the center annually, enough to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 193 metric tons and enough to power 23.2 American homes each year. Also, the arena’s parking lot includes new hybrid-only spaces; mechanisms for recycling grease and cardboard have been installed; and 52 solar panels soon will provide electricity directly to the arena’s Blue Sky Grill. “All four home teams and their fans will be affected by the changes, even if they don’t know it,” Jolette said, noting that a number of new components aimed at fans will be added soon. “The ‘Play Clean’ program is still relatively small, but every effort helps.”

The Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, Ky., faced a challenge a year ago as it sought to become more “green” in its consumption methods. “We found that despite our desire to become ‘greener’ there were few suppliers available to help,” said Gretchen Landrum, executive director of the convention center. Landrum’s first step was to get the city’s local waste contractor to provide a recycling compactor on site. She also worked diligently with city officials to implement a recycling program for businesses to complement one that already existed for the city’s residents, according to Pat Frew, communications director for the Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB).

Landrum also pursued other areas of “greening” the center, including working with vendors of cleaning and janitorial supplies. “One area of waste we recognized right away was the fact that we had numerous suppliers from similar companies selling us products and driving their trucks to the facility,” Landrum said. “After evaluation, we downsized the number of suppliers from which we purchase, thereby reducing the amount of vehicle emissions from delivery trucks arriving at the center.”

Landrum also found that after research into “green” cleaning supplies, she was able to save on monthly cleaning supply purchases because the cleaning supplies the new vendor recommended were vegetable-based and “worked just as well as the previous chemicals but were safer to the environment and to center workers,” she said.

Soon Landrum’s “green” thought process filtered into other departments. The Engineering Department found light bulbs that saved the meetings facility 75 percent on usage costs, and a new recycling program implemented last fall netted a reduction of five tons of garbage or the weight of five Volkswagen Beetles, she said.

The Orlando Events Center in Orlando, Fla., isn’t slated to open until the fall of 2010, but it’s well on its way to being the first National Basketball Association (NBA) arena to be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. The 800,000-square-foot center is a LEED-registered project and, according to Orlando Magic Chief Operating Officer Alex Martins, the center will undertake a projected 20 percent reduction in overall energy consumption and 40 percent reduction in water usage; incorporate a rain water harvesting system that will provide 100 percent of the center’s irrigation system needs; and target regional building materials with high recycled content and low chemical emissions. “We took a hard and long look at the essence of Orlando before coming up with a design that we believe reflects the best and most distinctive aspects of this community,” said Brad Clark, a designer with HOK Sport, the company designing the center. Clark is a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), an organization for industry professionals, whose strategic initiatives include “sustainability—leading the way for green building,” according to the AIA website. “The Orlando Events Center will set a new standard in sustainable design as one of the ‘greenest’ professional facilities in the country,” Clark said.

Breaking ‘Green’ Ground
Some sports have teamed up with organizations to break ground on “greening” their events and venues.

USA Triathlon (USAT) has partnered with Greenlayer Sports Apparel as an official “Go Green” corporate partner to provide eco-friendly apparel to USAT, according to Kim Bilancio, co-owner of Greenlayer Sports Apparel. Greenlayer will support the USAT National Championships and offer eco-friendly technical apparel that is built to adapt to changing climates, remain functional and meet the requirements for performance and environmentally responsible design to USAT clubs and race directors to outfit their members and participants. “USAT…is one of the first major sports groups to adopt environmental standards to implement across the organization,” Bilancio said. “This type of forward thinking by USAT will drive awareness and be an example of other organizations in the future.”

According to USAT CEO Skip Gilbert, USAT has also partnered with Athletes for a Fit Planet, which will consult USAT on the sustainability initiative behind its four owned National Championship events in 2009.

Another organization forging ahead in “greening” the sports world is The Council for Responsible Sport, a nonprofit organization based in Portland, Ore. Executive Director Jeff Henderson noted that the organization has recently created and released the results of the ReSport Pilot Program, a comprehensive survey of select sporting events produced in the United States in 2008 that assesses the state of event execution in terms of environmental and social sustainability components—which identified best practices to form the backbone of the ReSport Certification Standards version 2.0 in which sporting events can now apply for certification.

The Cateechee Golf Club in Hartwell, Ga. has also broken “green” ground by incorporating an eco-friendly irrigation system that helped the course earn recertification by Audubon International as a Signature Sanctuary. The golf course handles more than 639 million gallons of treated wastewater annually as irrigation on 270 acres with on-site storage capability of 15 million gallons. Cateechee was built with a drainage system that removes water quickly from the course and uses natural plants as filters and buffers to protect nearby water sources. Because of this system, the city of Hartwell abandoned its practice of discharging effluent water into a local stream, according to Lee Barton, owner. “With the current water crisis in Georgia and surrounding states, Cateechee remains one of the few courses with sufficient water supply for golf course irrigation needs because of its use of effluent,” said Nancy Richardson, Signature program director for Audubon International. “Not only has this facility helped clean up the creeks in Hartwell, but it continues to provide a recreational green space for the community.”