Staidums Slowly Growing Greener

"Each new stadium project brings a host of opportunities to save energy and, for all the millions of tons of concrete, steel and asphalt inevitably devoted to them, a chance to leave an ecologically sound impact upon the site and its surrounding environment. And while no other modern palace for pro football or baseball players will have a surplus of energy to give back to its neighborhood, many of today's stadiums are utilizing next-generation materials and technologies to save money and reflect the values of the communities where they are located."

"The first sports-team project to earn certification under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) was not a stadium, but a $34 million training facility and administrative headquarters for the Detroit Lions in Allen Park, Mich., designed by Gensler, a San Francisco-based architecture firm. The building includes bamboo flooring, nontoxic building materials and daylighting; the training field is surfaced with FieldTurf, a synthetic turf with backing made from recycled tires and athletic shoes; and the project team made efforts to preserve surrounding wetlands."

"Two of the most recent projects on the West Coast include only minimal environmentally inspired investments. The University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., opened last year to almost universal acclaim for its bold exterior design by Peter Eisenman, as well as a unique retractable field surface. Stanford University rebuilt its historic Stanford Stadium in an astonishingly short time frame of only about nine months - but included only modest energy- and water-efficiency measures."