With concern about the state of the environment growing, many major global centers are doing their part to achieve sustainability. That includes sports stadiums both in the United States and abroad, with owners using eco-friendly innovations to limit their venues’ environmental impact.
The change is evident in stadiums used for everything from football to soccer to track and field. In 2008, Nationals Park, home of the Major League Baseball’s Washington Nationals, became the first stadium in the country to receive Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. It redirected 83% of its construction waste from landfills and incorporated energy-efficient floodlighting in the venue.
Incredible, ever-increasing sustainability initiatives are happening across the sports world, and you can expect more old and new stadiums to incorporate green innovations as the environmental drive gathers even more momentum. Here are some that have already happened.
Super Bowl LVIII, hosted on February 11, 2024, by Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, made history as the first major sporting event exclusively powered by renewable energy. The game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers required 28 MWh of electricity, with Nevada’s EDF Renewables solar-plus-storage project entirely meeting the energy demands. Nevada’s many sunny days certainly help with this stadium innovation.
Stade de France in Paris became the latest stadium to use Mondo’s MONDOTRACK Ellipse Impulse track technology for its athletic surface at the 2024 Olympic Games. Mondo first installed an Olympic Games athletic surface in Montreal back in 1976, but the new formula includes up to 50% of renewable or recycled ingredients by weight, with low-carbon processes and the use of renewable energy. These innovative applications earned Mondo UL Greenguard Gold and TÜV Austria certifications.
The Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam, Netherlands, home to Dutch Eredivisie club AFC Ajax, has over 4,200 solar panels, a wind turbine and energy-generating escalators to assist in powering the stadium. Even more remarkable is the giant battery that includes 148 electric car batteries providing 2.8 MWh capacity — the largest European energy storage system housed commercially.
In a landmark move, Climate Pledge Arena developers reduced construction-related carbon emissions substantially by retaining some of the original Seattle Key Arena building and the whole 1962 roof as part of the original Seattle Center Coliseum. This innovation, as well as rainwater collected from the roof and transformed into ice for the resident NHL franchise, the Seattle Krakens, made it the first zero-carbon-certified arena worldwide.
Sometimes, smaller stadium innovations make substantial differences. The EPL’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London has bought into the UN Race to Zero campaign to become carbon-free by 2040. If you visit the stadium, you’ll receive a multi-use beer cup and buy food sourced within a 60-mile radius. Single-use plastic bottles are banned in the stadium, and there are ponds, bug hotels, and a wildlife meadow, helping to make Tottenham Hotspur the Premier League’s most sustainable club.
Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home to the National Football League’s Falcons, is a trailblazer in energy efficiency and renewables. It became the first professional sports stadium to achieve every credit in the Leadership in Energy Efficiency water efficiency category. Its innovative water conservation programs include a rainwater cistern that holds 680,000 gallons, high-efficiency toilets, waterless urinals, and landscape features that help collect, clean and convey stormwater.
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