Achieving Sustainability beyond Zero Waste: A Case Study from a College Football Stadium

Christine Costello,Esma Birisci,Ronald Mcgarvey

doi:10.3390/su9071236

Abstract

Collegiate sporting venues have been leading efforts toward zero-waste events in pursuit of more sustainable operations. This study audited the landfill-destined waste generated at the University of Missouri (MU) football stadium in 2014 and evaluated the life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) and energy use associated with waste management options, including options that do and do not comply with zero-waste definitions. An estimated 47.3 metric tons (mt) of waste was generated, the majority (29.6 mt waste) came from off-site, pre-game food preparation activities; of which over 96 percent (%) was pre-consumer and un-sold food waste. The remaining 17.7 mt originated from inside the stadium; recyclable materials accounting for 43%, followed by food waste, 24%. Eleven waste management strategies were evaluated using the Waste Reduction Model (WARM). Results indicate that scenarios achieving zero waste compliance are not necessarily the most effective means of reducing GHG emissions or energy use. The two most effective approaches are eliminating edible food waste and recycling. Source reduction of edible food reduced GHGs by 103.1 mt (carbon dioxide equivalents) CO2e and generated energy savings of 448.5 GJ compared to the baseline. Perfect recycling would result in a reduction of 25.4 mt CO2e and 243.7 GJ compared to the baseline. The primary challenges to achieving these reductions are the difficulties of predicting demand for food and influencing consumer behavior.

Highlights

Sustainability initiatives at athletic venues are on the rise
Athletic events offer a great opportunity for engaging with a large, diverse audience that may not be familiar with sustainability issues and can generate pro-environmental public relations messaging to a broad audience at relatively low cost [4,5]
The research objectives of this study are fourfold: (1) develop a strategy to quantitatively and qualitatively characterize the waste generated during the food preparation activities prior to game day, in the stadium during game day, and unsold food disposed of following game day destined for landfill disposal over the 2014 Mizzou football season; (2) quantify the life cycle energy and greenhouse gases associated with the current waste management approach and alternative waste management scenarios using the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Waste Reduction Model (WARM) [16]; (3) identify waste management strategies that achieve 90% diversion of waste from the landfill in compliance with definitions of zero waste; and, (4) to identify the scenarios that

Summary

Introduction

Sustainability initiatives at athletic venues are on the rise. Many professional and collegiate leagues have adopted energy or water conservation efforts, increased recycling and/or composting rates, purchased or generated renewable energy, constructed Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) stadiums or arenas and engaged fans to increase awareness about environmental problems [1,2,3]. Athletic events offer a great opportunity for engaging with a large, diverse audience that may not be familiar with sustainability issues and can generate pro-environmental public relations messaging to a broad audience at relatively low cost [4,5]. Details and further work are required to investigate various technical factors associated with “greening” an event, including waste auditing procedures, quantitative evaluations of waste management options, and operational issues associated with the event [11]. Few of these studies exist and even fewer addressed waste. Jones, and Munday found that the second most significant contribution came from food and drink [12]

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Conclusion