Welcome to Sustainable Sport Solutions

The idea behind this blog is to help share best practices so please share what you have seen or done to help make sports/fitness greener.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Economics of Going Green

Business Week highlighted in their Oct. 11-17 magazine the cost for green energy. Some green energy sources such as wind energy has become almost so competitive with coal that it will start making sense to use more wind energy. Some other sources while reliable, are having a hard time finding banks willing to lend money. The chart below highlights the costs of producing electricity based on dollars per kilowatt-hour (range from low to high cost).

Coal- $56-63
Geothermal- $52-112
Wind (on shore)- $62-119
Biomass- $86-189
Wind (off shore)- $143-260
Tidal- $194-453
Solar (c-Si PV)- $226-424
Solar (thermal)- $238-313

Green Ideas

Great Green Ideas
The pictures did not coem through, but you can get a feel of the ideas.

Designer creates an iPhone charger powered by a hand grip

A green idea that gives you a great hand workout as well. Charge your iPhone by a hand grip! This concept is called You can work it out, designed by Mac Funamizu.

Get out of the shower
20% of our total domestic energy usage is from hot water for showering and bathing. That's over 6 times the energy usage of domestic lighting. So designer Tommaso Colia came up with his eco-friendly shower design that will force you to get out when you take too long and waste much water. The eco_drop shower features beautiful concentric circles that will rise to force you to stop showering when you take too long, and accordingly save water.

Disco pub gets electricity produced by people dancing at specially modified dance floor (imagine if this was used with aerobics)

All the flashing strobes and pounding speakers at the dance club are massive consumers of electrical power. So Bar Surya, in London, re-outfitted its floor with springs that, when compressed by dancers, could produce electrical current that would be stored in batteries and used to offset some of the club's electrical burden. The club's owner, Andrew Charalambous, said the dance floor can now power 60 percent of the club's energy needs.

Hotel offers free meal to guests who are willing to generate electricity


The Crown Plaza Hotel in Copenhagen , Denmark , is offering a free meal to any guest who is able to produce electricity for the hotel on an exercise bike attached to a generator. Guests will have to produce at least 10 watt hours of electricity - roughly 15 minutes of cycling for someone of average fitness. They will then be given meal vouchers worth $36 (26 euros).

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Snow job

The following story from Veritix Sports marketing Newsletter highlights a huge waste of resources to leverage 150 tons of snow a day in Cleveland.

Baseball teams setting up ice rinks at their ballparks during the winter months has become increasingly popular over the past decade but this year the Cleveland Indians’ ballpark is taking that idea a lot farther. The Snow Days attraction at Progressive Field will include 10 snow-tubing lanes descending from a seating section; a quarter-mile ice-skating track around the outfield; a kids play area; a walking trail lit by winter lights; and a fire pit where fans can warm themselves. The attraction will require approximately 150 tons of snow to be delivered per day and will be open daily starting November 26. Tickets will be $5 for general admission and $20 for snow-tubing and ice skating. You can see an artist’s rendering here: http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/cle/fan_forum/snowdays.jsp. (Crain’s Cleveland Business, Sept.