PHILADELPHIA (AP) \u2014 A wall of solar panels towered above a sea of green football jerseys as people filed into Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia for a recent Eagles home game. Inside, some fans snapped photos with an oversized Lombardi Trophy made out of recycled plastic collected from the stadium while others strolled to their seats carrying beverages in recyclable aluminum cups. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese are real nice cups,\u201d said Tre Simon, a fan who was impressed at how cold the aluminum cup kept his drink. \u201cKeep this going \u2026 I think it\u2019s perfect.\u201d <\/p>\n
Stadium staff manually sort recyclables, and an on-site compactor crushes aluminum so the metal can be sold for recycling. The Linc recycled 18 tons of aluminum in 2024 and reinvested the money into the stadium\u2019s sustainability program.<\/p>\n
The venue is among several NFL stadiums, also including those in Atlanta and Santa Clara, that have made strides in lowering their carbon footprints by installing solar panels and creating composting and recycling programs. Powering jumbotrons, bright lights and air conditioning requires huge amounts of energy, which can take its toll on the environment. Experts said the moves are a step in the right direction and encourage fans of the most-watched sport<\/a> in the United States to try similar approaches at home. <\/p>\n \u201cYou always want to root for a team that\u2019s doing good by the environment and the community,\u201d said Brendan Gee, an Eagles fan at another home game<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cWhy not recycle when you can, and solar panels are pretty cool I guess,\u201d said Jakub Dzafic, another Eagles fan, who added: \u201cAny NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB team should try and do that when they can.\u201d <\/p>\n Solar panels and energy credits<\/p>\n Lincoln Financial Field is considered a leader in venue sustainability. The solar panels produce about 40% of the stadium\u2019s energy annually and renewable energy credits are purchased to offset the rest, said Norman Vossschulte, the Eagles\u2019 vice president of fan experience and sustainability. <\/p>\n \u201cOur hope is that our efforts will inspire our fans to do the same and take some of their own actions. If we all did something, I think it\u2019d make a big difference,\u201d Vossschulte said.<\/p>\n Large sporting events can produce a lot of waste and consume massive amounts of energy. Asked whether a stadium can ever be truly sustainable, Tony Lamanna, construction management professor at Arizona State University, said \u201cevery bit counts. \u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think you necessarily have to be net zero<\/a> to be making an impact,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Lamanna said stadium sustainability encompasses both how the venue reduces its own footprint and how it influences fans\u2019 habits. <\/p>\n \u201cIf you can model the right actions to the 80,000 fans or however many you have in your stadium, think of the impact,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Keeping waste out of landfills<\/p>\n Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home to the Falcons<\/a> in Atlanta, became the first professional sports stadium internationally to achieve a Total Resource Use and Efficiency Platinum certification for diverting 90% or more of its waste from landfills. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d say 98% of what you get out of a concession or point of sale is compostable,\u201d said Adam Fullerton, the stadium\u2019s vice president of operations. <\/p>\n The stadium has a garden that grows fruits and vegetables used by the culinary team, a 680,000-gallon (2,574,080 liter) cistern that collects rainwater that is used for irrigation and 4,000 solar panels. At games, fans who are spotted recycling can be featured on the stadium video board and win a signed jersey. Fullerton said fans seek out the sustainability team in hopes of being spotted.<\/p>\n \u201cStart small and at least start doing something,\u201d is Fullerton\u2019s advice for venues that are interested in becoming more sustainable. <\/p>\n He said it costs about 10 cents per fan who attend events to run the zero waste program. <\/p>\n \u201cIn the grand scheme of things, that\u2019s pretty cheap,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Waste created by tailgating outside the stadium remains a challenge because the parking lots can be outside the scope of the stadium\u2019s waste management program. \u201cIt\u2019s really difficult to control what a fan brings with them\u201d to a tailgate, said Fullerton.<\/p>\n Fans can practice sustainability and minimize tailgate waste by packaging food and beverages in reusable containers and placing all waste and recyclables in their corresponding bins, taking public transit and adjusting home thermostats<\/a> when they leave to save energy and money.<\/p>\n How sustainable marketing can lead to behavior changes<\/p>\n The visibility of stadium sustainability initiatives leads to a sense of group identity and increases the likelihood that fans will adopt that mindset as their own, said Karen Winterich, professor of sustainability and marketing at the Pennsylvania State University.<\/p>\n \u201cOne big thing we know about any sort of behavior change, and that includes sustainable behaviors, is that consumers are really motivated by identity, social norms and social pressures,\u201d she said. When everyone puts their can into a stadium recycling bin, it increases the odds they\u2019ll do so at home. <\/p>\n Climate change and renewable energy, especially solar and wind<\/a>, are topics that are highly politicized. \u201cI think it\u2019s really strategic by the NFL \u2026 they\u2019re talking about it for the benefits, but not in a polarizing way,\u201d said Winterich. She said a strategy that often works to get people on board with sustainability is highlighting the benefits of on-site energy usage and how the local environment benefits from less pollution, composting and recycling. <\/p>\n NFL Green, the league\u2019s sustainability program, aims to leave \u201ca green legacy in the communities we visit,\u201d said Anna Isaacson, the league\u2019s senior vice president of social responsibility. For major events such as the Super Bowl, NFL Green hosts community feedback sessions that have inspired efforts such as the league financially supporting a coastal wetland project in Louisiana, where the 2025 Super Bowl<\/a> was held. <\/p>\n The next Super Bowl<\/a> will be held at the Levi\u2019s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Some of the stadium\u2019s sustainable initiatives include 1,162 solar panels, a rooftop garden that yields about 10,000 pounds of crops annually, and recycling and composting 70% of all materials. <\/p>\n \u201cThe Bay Area is our home and it\u2019s a unique place with tons of natural beauty. So our goal is to keep our community clean, not just for now, but for the future,\u201d said Francine Melendez Hughes, executive vice president and general manager of Levi\u2019s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n Isabella O\u2019malley, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (AP) \u2014 A wall of solar panels towered above a sea of green football jerseys as people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-189572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}