Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 69.24
Liaison Rob Andrejewski
Submission Date March 4, 2022

STARS v2.2

University of Richmond
IN-16: Green Athletics

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.25 / 0.50 Rob Andrejewski
Director of Sustainability
Office for Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution’s green athletics program include the following?:
Yes or No
Zero waste and/or carbon neutral athletic events Yes
A stadium or arena certified under a green building rating system Yes
A sustainable food and beverage purchasing program that includes athletic event vendors and concessions No
A program to minimize the sustainability impacts of turf management (e.g., by installing low input turfgrass or environmentally preferable artificial turf) No
A program to support more sustainable transportation options for athletic events No
Community engagement efforts, e.g. to educate students and fans/supporters about the institution’s sustainability initiatives Yes
An athletic team certification program No

A brief description of the institution’s green athletics program:

Robins Stadium was one of the first LEED certified stadiums in the Southeast: https://news.richmond.edu/releases/article/-/10108/robins-stadium-receives-leed-silver-certification.html

Rethink Waste Athletics: We're big fans of reducing waste and so is our Athletics Department. Each year the Office for Sustainability, Athletics, and Custodial and Environmental Services work together to host a Rethink Waste football and basketball game. These games feature composting, increased recycling, special signage, and user education about what can and cannot be recycled or composted. Thanks to the work of dozens of dedicated volunteers educating game attendees, we're able to achieve exceptional landfill diversion rates at these games and get closer to meeting the University's goal of 75% waste diversion from the landfill by 2025.

Rethink Waste Football has been on pause due to COVID. At the fall 2019 Spiders Go Green football game, we diverted 67% of our waste from the landfill, up from 55% in 2018. The efforts of dozens of volunteers, Custodial and Environmental Services, Athletics, Landscaping, and Catering made this progress possible. In 2021, we held tabling events and modified our efforts, but we did not have a full green game experience.

Rethink Waste Basketball
Every (non-COVID-19-impacted) spring, University of Richmond participates in Campus Race to Zero Waste, a nationwide recycling challenge. Our RecycleMania Basketball Game is a crucial part of this competition and for the past four years, volunteers have made this event a success. At the 2020 game, we had five dozen volunteers and diverted 74% of our waste from the landfill, up from 62% in 2019.


Website URL where information about the green athletics program is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Rethink Waste Athletics have been put on hold in 2021 and Spring 2022 due to COVID. We hope to start them up again in Fall 2022.


Rethink Waste Athletics have been put on hold in 2021 and Spring 2022 due to COVID. We hope to start them up again in Fall 2022.

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