Stanford University
IN-4: Green Athletics

The Sustainability in Athletics working group was formed in 2012 and has steadily built the Sustainability in Athletics program ever since. In 2013, Stanford University officially joined the Green Sports Alliance, formalizing its commitment to a Sustainability in Athletics program. In summer 2014, Stanford was featured on the Green Sports Alliance's Stadium Tours circuit. In the 2015-16 academic year, some of the stated goals of the Sustainability in Athletics program included putting together a formal list of sustainability in Athletics milestones to date and creating an official web page (see below); utilizing intern support to study waste bin infrastructure throughout Athletics facilities, collect data, and generate recommendations and a timeline for improvement; improving sustainability in Stanford's recreation centers; working with Stanford Concessions to continue to adopt compostable products, offer healthy food options, and train volunteers on Zero Waste practices; and supporting existing retrofit projects in Athletics facilities to improve energy and water efficiency. Some significant achievements have included:

1) Athletics decided to add approximately 15 waste stations (each including 1 recycling, 1 compost, and 1 landfill bin) to outdoor areas throughout Stanford Athletics facilities in summer 2016.

2) Stanford Concessions now provides 8 compostable items out of 13 total

3) Athletics brought on Total Quality Management as its new janitorial contractor in 2015 and included green cleaning in the contract language.

4) Athletics reduced its total water consumption by 27% in 2015 compared to 2013 due to water efficiency and drought response efforts. This included efforts to reduce irrigation at the golf course and golf practice facility, transition to artificial turf, and switch out water-intensive ornamental landscapes.

5) Athletics conducted retrofit projects on 6 of its key facilities in 2015, saving a total of $400,000 per year in electricity, chilled water and hot water savings from HVAC upgrades, LED lighting, and improved controls. Retrofit efforts of additional buildings are still underway.

6) A group of students launched the Stanford Carbon Offsets for Emissions Reductions (SCORE) project, which brought many stakeholders together to purchase carbon offsets for all of the air travel for Stanford varsity teams during the 2015 calendar year. Funded in part by Athletics and drawing in other campus partners such as the School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences, the TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy, Students for a Sustainable Stanford, and Stanford Students Environmental Consulting, SCORE hopes to eventually market to Stanford sports fans to sponsor offsets, which totaled 2,640 metric tons of CO2 in 2015.

A good example of the Sustainability in Athletics program's progress is in the area of Zero Waste, as showcased by expanded programming and communications for Game Day Challenges, as well as the use of these events to collect data to build the case for future efforts. Stanford has competed in the national Game Day Challenge since 2014 and now selects designated games during both football season and basketball season (men's and women's). In 2015-16, members of the Sustainability in Athletics Working Group worked to make the Game Day Challenge more visible to fans, adding marketing tactics such as social media engagement, emails to season ticket holders and students, placement of 25 A-frame signs around the venues with sustainability factoids, greening tailgates through the Cardinal Green Events program, training ushers and engaging student volunteers to help fans sort their waste, and showing specially made sustainability videos during halftime. In February 2016, during the Recyclemania Game Day Challenge basketball games, compost bins were added to the stadium for the first time in order to measure the potential impact of adding composting infrastructure within the venues. With this additional infrastructure and the programming listed above, Stanford was able to achieve a 28.57% diversion rate at the men’s basketball game and a 17.65% diversion rate at the women’s basketball game, which was a significant increase over previous diversion rates at basketball games. With this data in hand, the Sustainability in Athletics program has provided the impetus for Athletics to add recycling and composting bins to all outdoor areas surrounding their facilities during summer 2016, as highlighted above.

In the 2016-17 academic year, bin infrastructure in indoor areas will continue to be evaluated, along with strategies for promotion of alternative transit, which will be tested during the 2016 football season.