2.7 SUSTAINABILITY

If an existing stadium can be refurbished, while keeping the majority of the primary structure intact, this approach can often lead to a sustainable solution. However, for many reasons, refurbishing an old stadium can be more challenging than refurbishing other building types.

To deliver a sustainable solution, stadium developers need to ask their design teams some important questions. How does my stadium perform? What are the environmental impacts of my stadium? What is the carbon cost of my stadium? Is my stadium environmentally friendly? To be able to answer these questions, efficient design, accurate computer modelling and careful assessment of the design are required.

All stadium projects need a sustainability champion. This is often the client, architect or sustainability consultant, who should help to set the sustainability agenda. It is important to set sustainability targets that can be tracked and recorded through the design stages. Stadium design teams should report on the key sustainability topics of carbon, water, energy, waste and ecology.

When the stadium is complete and the sustainability goals have been achieved, it is important to publicise the design and share data on how the stadium performs so that others can learn from its success.

Whilst there is no defined industry standard for stadiums at the time of writing, a review of various sources shows that a large, low-carbon stadium is recommended to have no more than 1,000kg CO₂e per m2. Medium-sized stadiums are recommended to have no more than 750kg CO₂e per m2, measured using an internationally recognised standard. These figures are likely to fall as low-carbon technology develops.

After removing as much embodied carbon as possible from the scheme during the design stage, stadium developers could consider offsetting the remaining embodied carbon upon completion of the project. This involves buying into schemes that remove carbon from the atmosphere. The cost of carbon offsetting varies, and internationally recognised schemes should be pursued.

The Johan Cruyff Arena, Amsterdam, has a 3MW battery that helps power the stadium.

Water-saving fittings can be used in a stadium bathroom.

Water is a scarce commodity in many parts of the world. Water usage also has a carbon footprint because energy is needed to clean and transport it. For these reasons, a sustainable stadium seeks to reduce its potable water use to a minimum.

One of the biggest uses of water in stadiums relates to sanitary and catering facilities to serve a large crowd. Section 5.6 considers the management of water for these facilities.

Additionally, stadium designers should carefully consider how much glass is incorporated into the facade of the building in order to minimise the amount of water needed to clean it.

Water will also be needed to irrigate the landscape around the stadium. Planting is generally a positive thing to do, however, plant species should be carefully selected. Ideally. indigenous plants should be used, and in hot countries the plants should be drought-resistant. If regular watering is required, efficient, controlled irrigation systems should be used rather than manual hosing because this uses more water. The requirements for watering the pitch are discussed in Section 2.4.

In some countries, it is possible to install systems on the roof of a stadium to capture rainwater, which can then be used to replace potable water use in certain stadium functions.

Wastewater, also known as greywater, can be recycled on-site and reused for some stadium functions. Greywater processing systems require specialist advice from a public health engineer.

Stormwater should be managed on-site to prevent the pollution of local watercourses. Pollution usually occurs when stormwater washes pollutants off hard surfaces into rivers and streams. This can be mitigated by deploying permeable surfaces, which slow the rate of run-off.

To prevent local flooding, stormwater should be stored on-site before it is released into the local drainage system. This is normally achieved by using underground water storage tanks, however, innovative landscape solutions such as rain gardens and swales are a more sustainable solution and should be investigated where the space is available.

Al Janoub Stadium, Qatar
Water efficiency is increased in this stadium by the use of waterless urinals and dual-flush toilets.

The ecological value of land is a measure of how much biodiversity it can support. Biodiversity is the amount and variety of plant and animal life on the land. Stadium designers can help reduce declines in biodiversity around the world through the sustainable sourcing of construction materials and by increasing the amount of planting in, on and around stadiums.

As discussed in Sub-Section 1.3.5, stadiums should not be built on areas of high ecological value, and areas of the stadium site that have a high ecological value should be preserved. Stadiums should not be built with products that cause biodiversity loss. Special care should be taken with wood products. Stadium designers should never use tropical hardwoods or any wood that is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) “red list”. It is recommended that all timber used in a stadium project has an internationally recognised sustainable sourcing certificate.

Large stadium sites often present the opportunity to create green corridors within a local area.

Green corridors are areas of planting on the site that connect to adjacent planted sites, helping wildlife to move between them.

As well as enhancing biodiversity, planting delivers positive messaging, reduces air pollution in its location and absorbs CO₂. One of the most popular ways to deliver planting on stadium developments is in the form of “green” facades and roofs. The weight of these features should be considered, especially on long-span structures, as the additional structural material and its embodied carbon counteracts some of the benefits of the planting.

Stadium designers could consider creating habitats that encourage local wildlife to thrive, such as bird and bat boxes and insect hotels. The most suitable type of habitat creation will vary depending on the region. These features can also be used to help connect with younger supporters and for educational purposes within the community. Care should be taken to place wildlife habitats away from areas that will be disturbed by crowds or light pollution from the stadium.

Managing waste is a problem for many countries around the world. Waste exacerbates issues around global resource scarcity. It is important that stadium designers make efficient use of the materials required to build a sustainable stadium and reduce the amount of waste created in the process.

Stadium designers should use materials that are easy to recycle so that any waste that is produced can be diverted from landfill. An awareness of the dimensional properties of a material can help to reduce the number of offcuts that are produced. Changing the specification of material can help to reduce waste. For example, specifying precast concrete rather than in situ concrete to reduce the waste associated with single-use shuttering.

The stadium contractor should set ambitious waste reduction and waste recycling targets. If existing structures need to be demolished to make way for a new stadium, as much of the demolition waste as possible should be reused.

Innovative design solutions could be considered to promote a circular economy, where products are not discarded as waste at the end of their life. Instead, they are kept within the economy and reused. An example of this is reusing sections of oil pipeline to make large, tubular stadium roof trusses.

Any entity building a stadium has a responsibility to respect human rights throughout its operations in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (see here). This means that adequate measures should be taken to prevent and mitigate potential harm to people and to cooperate in remediation where the entity has caused or contributed to harm that may have occurred.

The most salient human rights risk areas associated with the building of stadiums are (a) labour rights of workers involved in construction, as well as (b) impacts linked to the potential resettlement of people. With respect to labour rights, all entities building the stadium shall take adequate due diligence measures to ensure compliance with national labour law by all companies involved in the project. Where required to ensure decent working conditions for workers, enhanced measures shall be taken in accordance with the IFC Performance Standard 2 on Labour and Working Conditions (see here).

All entities building stadiums must furthermore ensure compliance with any national legislation on land acquisition and, as relevant, involuntary resettlement. Where required to avoid adverse impacts on people in situations of particular vulnerability, the IFC Performance Standard 5 on Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement provides guidance on how to ensure that people‘s rights are respected in the process (see here).

Measures to ensure respect for the rights of workers and communities may require collaboration with external expert entities. Furthermore, these measures shall be informed by meaningful engagement with those who are at risk of being affected. Experience shows that taking proactive and effective measures to avoid harm to people is not only ethically the right thing to do but also helps to avoid delays in construction and associated costs.

Sustainability requires that all developments, including stadiums, deliver a better future across all sectors of society. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out 17 priorities for action. These strive to achieve a better, more sustainable future for all members of society and cover the three dimensions of sustainability mentioned above. From a social perspective, the advice in these guidelines can assist a stadium developer in addressing the following UN SDGs. Some of the issues in Figure 2.7.1 will overlap with environmental protection aspects discussed in the previous sections of this chapter.

Bankwest Stadium, Sydney
The first stadium in the world to receive LEED v4 Gold certification for sustainability and Australia’s first LEED v4 Gold building

Green building certification (GBC) is an assessment system for recording the environmental performance of existing and new developments. Different aspects of the stadium design are assessed based on published criteria and given a score, which then translates into a level of achievement. Stadiums are usually awarded certificates of achievement by the body that administers the system.

The key benefit of using a GBC system is that it ensures that important sustainability issues are addressed within the stadium design. Certification is an effective method of standardising how environmental sustainability is measured. The systems are audited by the administrators, which ensures that claims that a design is sustainable can be verified, and the assessment systems include detailed guidance that can be followed by project teams.

Figure 2.7.2
Map showing regional green building certification schemes around the world