Sport Facilities Going Green- Survey from UNH

A typical major college football game can generate around 400 cubic yards of trash, which over the course of a football season can generate around 2,500 cubic yards of trash. At Super Bowl XXXII in San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium, the 68,000 fans generated around 70 tons of trash. Thus, trash and reducing trash at Public Assembly Facilities is a major issue.
The University of New Haven launched this past spring a Green Sport Facility Society to generate awareness and resources for sport facility managers to more effectively implement green solutions. The students in Professor Gil Fried’s Sport Facility Management class designed several blogs, informational material, and administered a web-based survey for sport facility managers. While the survey was highlighted to the entire membership (over 3,500) of the International Association of Assembly Managers (IAAM), there were only 49 completed surveys.
The results were very enlightening and give a picture as to the current state of green sport facilities as viewed by those facility managers who had completed the survey.
Background Information
Approximately 52% of survey respondents had been in the field for over 9 years. This was a very educated group with 63.33% holding at least a Bachelor's degree. Twenty percent of the respondents worked at a stadium while over 36% worked at arenas. The remaining respondents worked at college or other facilities. When asked what the facility executives felt they did well, the following were the most common responses provided in order (most to least):
Facility Safety
Facility Marketing
Facility Finance
Trash Removal/Recycling
Landscaping
Sustainability
Energy Audits
Architectural/Engineering Systems

Financial Concerns
Numerous individuals are interested in pursuing sustainable initiatives, but are scared that the process might be cost prohibitive. The survey showed that 66.7% of participating facilities felt that going "green" costs more money. Additionally, 74% of facilities believe there is a "green premium"- where the overall cost of a green building usually exceeds traditional building practices and materials. The cost would not deter respondents if there was assistance from other sources. Thus, 84% of the respondents would be willing to pursue green initiatives if they received tax, direct funding, or other initiatives from the federal government.

While the investment might cost more, 93% of the facilities felt that being green is a great marketing tool. Thus, the investment can well be worth it if it draws fans willing to patronize a facility/team due to their sustainable practices. Besides utilizing sustainable initiatives to attract new customers, many respondents felt that green practices can reduce the costs. Approximately 81% of responding facilities do see going green as a way to save money by cutting down costs.

Sustainable Practices

Many facilities are or have already developed sustainable initiatives. A large percentage of respondents (almost 77%) were familiar with LEED certification. The survey showed that 70% of the responding facilities indicated that they have formal sustainability or environmentally friendly programs/policies in place.

One of the rapidly expanding areas of interest is renewable energy. Everything from solar programs to wind energy can be explored and only 16% of the responding facilities indicated they utilized on-site or off-site renewable energy sources.

Recycling is a major problem for sport facilities based on the large amount of trash generated every event. A large number of facilities (81%) currently have some sort of recycling program in place.
The top four recycled items at responding facilities are:
-Bottles
-Cans
-Card board boxes
-Office Paper
Some foods were recycled with the most popular recycled food in decreasing order of frequency highlighted below:
Coffee Grinds
Vegetable trimmings
Fruit and salad trimmings
Old bread

To cut down on waste, many facilities are installing air dryers and automatic shut-off sinks. Nonetheless, 75% of responding facilities are currently using paper towels in their restrooms. However, 40% of the responded indicated they utilized recycled products for toilet paper, paper towels, and biodegradable trash bags.

While it is important to have educational material and recycling programs for fans, it is just as important to educate employees. Approximately 50% of the responding facilities educate their staff to ensure they know how to prevent pollution. A much lower number, 26.67% of respondents educated their patrons on how to reduce pollution at events.