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.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Who is greener?

A recent CNBC survey highlighted the greenest ten states in teh US based on water quality, legislation, and other variables. Here is the list:

1. Washington
The Evergreen State is living up to its nickname. According to Greenopia, Washington made the top stop because of its high number of LEED buildings, green businesses and renewable energy sources, such as Energy Northwest's Nine Canyon Wind Project.

2. Vermont
One of the state's renewable energy sources is the Searsburg Wind Power Facility, which can power some 1,400 homes a year. Vermont has also attracted a number of green businesses to the stat. Some 100 of them operate within its borders.

3. New York
The Empire State is cited as having low water consumption per capita compared to other states, according to the report. New York also has a large number of green businesses, some 3,000, according to Greenopia.

4. Oregon
Oregon has one of the highest recycling rates in the country at almost 50 percent, according to Greenopia. It was also cited for having a large number of green businesses relative to its population. There are about 600 green businesses in Oregon, according to Greenopia.

5. California
The Golden State gets a large amount of its energy from renewable sources, such as eSolar's Sierra SunTower, pictured here, which can power up to 4,000 homes in Southern California.

6. Nevada
One of the state's renewable energy sources includes ACCIONA's Nevada Solar One. Completed in 2007, it can power more than 14,000 homes a year.

7. Maine
Greenopia cited the high number of LEED-registered and -certified buildings in the state in placing i among the greenest. This Hannaford supermarket in Augusta, Maine achieved the highest-level LEED certification. Opened last year, it has solar panels, utilizes recycled materials and a partial rooftop garden that helps keep the store cool.

8. Colorado
The state has one of the highest concentrations of green businesses, according to Greenopia. In December 2009, solar-power company SolarCity opened a sales office in Westminster, Colo. and has plans to expand into the Denver area.

9. Minnesota
A higher number of green businesses and Leadership in Energy and Environmental. LEED, registered and certified buildings helped propel Minnesota into the top ten. Target Field, pictured at left, achieved LEED silver certification (the third-highest level). The baseball stadium, which opened in April, has recycling stations, water-saving fixtures and utilized recycled building materials.

10. New Hampshire
The state's winning quality, according to the report, is its low energy consumption and emissions per capita.

Discover Magazine article

Discover Magazine had a great feature in the June 2010 issue where they highlighted energy trends…and here are some of them. Residential and commercial energy consumption amounts to 72% of all electricity and 13% of all fossil fuel used in the US. It is estimated that by using more natural light for buildings electricity for lighting usage could be reduced 30-60%. Natural ventilation could help reduce AC usage 20-40% and using natural shading could decrease AC usage another 10%. Lastly, more stringent energy regulations and policies could save another 50-75%.

Currently our energy usage is broken down as follows:
Petroleum- 37%
Natural gas- 24%
Coal- 22%
Nuclear power- 8%
Biomass- 4%
Hydro energy- 2%
Geothermal, Solar, and wind- 1%
Amazingly 57% of all energy is lost during generation, transmission, and use.
The significant amount of lost electricity highlights why we need to implement more smart grid based systems. Transportation is one area with significant energy waste. For example light-duty vehicle consume 3.4% of all energy used in the US. However, these vehicles only convert around 20% of the fuel they consume into useful energy.
The article went on to highlight the potential for biofuel and fuel cell systems. However, one of the most striking facts was that while we graduate around 1,000 college graduates exit each year with training in electrical-power engineering, we will need more than 7,000 such trained professionals in the next five years. Thus, we are not as a country producing enough trained professionals to help lead us to energy efficiency.

Friday, May 21, 2010

TSI Implements Sustainability Program

TSI Implements Sustainability Program
May 11, 2010 3:17 PM
http://clubindustry.com/forprofits/tsi-ecosteps-20100511/

NEW YORK -- Town Sports International Holdings Inc. (TSI) has launched at all of its facilities an EcoSteps initiative, a fully integrated sustainability program, the company announced.

“A healthy planet means healthy living for all of us, which is why we’ve made a company-wide commitment to lessening TSI’s impact on the environment,” COO Martin Annese says. “EcoSteps is a natural extension of our company’s mission to improve health and fitness. More efficient, more environmentally sustainable clubs will give our members better opportunities to work toward both a healthier body and planet.”

TSI aims to reduce energy usage by 20 percent, water usage by 5 percent and recyclable waste by 75 percent during the next three years. This long-term program, which TSI will be working on closely with community leaders and sustainability experts, will educate employees and members about how they can participate to help achieve these goals.

Annese continued, “The plan has been 24 months in the making and takes a holistic look at our entire operation to figure out how to not just “go green” but also how to become more efficient in the process.”

TSI has established a Sustainability Steering Committee reporting directly to Annese.

Additionally, TSI has instituted energy management systems at more than 60 clubs throughout the 158-club network in the United States. It has completed lighting retro-fit projects at 20 clubs, with an additional 30 clubs under way. One hundred of TSI’s clubs and its six regional corporate offices have recycling programs.

The company also is participating in the EPA’s Climate Leaders program with five-year greenhouse gas emission reduction goals pending. In addition, TSI uses the Green Revolution, power-generating exercise equipment, and it has an 80-kilowatt photovoltaic solar platform at its Elmsford corporate office as part of a renewable energy pilot program.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Water wars

The big battle in the future will be over water. One of the biggest users of water are sport fields. In our effort to have the greenest fields possible we sometimes- no normally- over water grass. Grass normally does not need a lot of water from the end of August until the beginning of April. However, many lawns/fields are still water extensively at times when the grass no longer needs as much water. By knowing when the grass should be watered, a facility could possibly save a lot on their water bills and save water! A recent survey showed that hospitals use 7% of their water usage for irrigation. Hotels/Motels used 16%, and schools used 28% of all their water for irrigation. The primary usage for schools are their fields.

National standard

Would we be more inclined to pursue sustainable solutions if we had a national law/standard for recycling? A recent article highlighted the recycling programs underway in Nova Scotia. Organic materials are collected by the municipality and sold to landscapers for use on grounds, golf courses, etc... Every bottle has a 10 cent deposit with 50% being returned to the municipality to cover composting costs. Yard waste is collected in green bin and 20 bags of leaves are collected twice a year. To encourage recycling, the government allows free recycling at municipal facilities. All "old" style dumps are now closed and any new landfills use a bathtub style waste repositories, and new treatment strategies.

Maybe if our government was willing to take some risks and make some hard laws with stiff penalties we might be able to launch some more aggressive disposal/recycling initiatives.