Dive Brief:
- The National Institute of Building Sciences said a scarcity of performance benchmarking data is holding back energy and water conservation efforts at the nation's approximately 1,500 sports venues, according to Engineering News-Record.
- Officials at NIBS said the facility response rate to a survey, produced in cooperation with the Green Sports Alliance, has been less than 4% and is preventing the Institute from creating a useful database of information, as well as a sustainability plan for sports facilities.
- NIBS has sent a second plea to owners to return the 100-question survey, in part because many of the venues are suitable for renovation and could benefit from the data if they wish to pursue energy efficiencies as part of their potential construction projects.
Dive Insight:
The U.S. is home to 80 LEED-certified sports facilities, with the newly completed Sacramento Kings' Golden 1 Center marking the first LEED Platinum-certified indoor sports arena. By investing in energy efficient systems, teams have reported significant utility bill savings. With the adequate data, NIBS hopes that other athletic facilities can start down the path to similar results.
Last fall, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy rolled out sports and recreation-related initiatives that aimed to increase awareness of climate change through sports and recreation.
The Green Sports Alliance was part of that strategy and partnered with the Kings on their new basketball arena. The OSTP also pointed to the Atlanta Falcons' new Mercedes-Benz Stadium as an example of what sports facilities could achieve in the area of sustainability and green building. The stadium will be the first such facility to be LEED Platinum–certified and the first sports venue to earn all of LEED's water credits.
