MetLife Stadium, home of this year’s Super Bowl, may be “The greenest stadium in the US”

When Skanska first sent  information on the new MetLife Stadium in New Jersey and called it it “one of the greenest stadiums in the US”, my eyes rolled. (we have heard this before) How can an 82,000 seat stadium be green? What about the transportation energy intensity of all those people driving there, let alone the private jets? When 400 planes flew into Phoenix a few years ago, I called it a greenhouse gastravaganza.

But this one is in New Jersey, and a lot of those planes will stay parked at Teterboro. And in fact, a lot of people don’t drive there. There are 13,000 parking spaces being charged out at $150 a pop for the Super Bowl, so a lot of people are going to take the handy Meadowlands Rail Line that comes right to the stadium.  Skanska writes in a press release (not related to the Super Bowl, written before it became MetLife)

The New Meadowlands Stadium was constructed on car parking space between the old Giants Stadium and the Meadowlands Racetrack, and did not impact upon greenfield land or natural habitats. The stadium is situated in a built up urban area and is close to a range of services. The New Meadowlands Stadium has excellent public transport links and approximately 12,500 fans utilize the local public rail and bus networks to travel to the stadium on game days. The use of public transport avoids around 4,000 private vehicle journeys to the stadium. Initiatives also promote car-pooling for events at the stadium and bicycle racks have been installed to encourage visitors to cycle to the stadium.

There are things to like about this place. It isn’t enclosed so it may be a very cold game (or they may have very hot ones next summer), a cost-saving decision that has a huge saving in heating and cooling energy costs, and you don’t have to worry as much about power failures like last year’s embarrassment. Once they are there, fans will have a great green time:

They’ll cheer from 82,500 seats made of 80 percent recycled cast iron and 20 percent recycled plastic. They’ll watch 2,100 HD monitors and rock out to Bruno Mars with a 2,500-speaker sound system. After drinking their fill of beer, they’ll utilize low-flow toilets and waterless urinals.

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Source: http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/metlife-stadium-home-years-super-bowl-may-be-greenest-stadium-us.html