Levi's Stadium Tackling Green Cleaning, Energy Conservation

Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California — home to the San Francisco 49ers — has drastically reduced its overall carbon footprint and is net-neutral to the grid for the 10 scheduled home games each season, according to a High Performance Buildings article.

In August 2014, Levi’s Stadium became the first professional football stadium to open with LEED BD+C: New Construction v2. Less than two years later, in July 2016, the stadium achieved LEED O&M: Existing Buildings v3, making it the first NFL stadium to be LEED Gold certified under those two rating systems, the article said.

Part of the stadium’s overall plan includes maintaining a sustainable purchasing program for cleaning materials and products, disposable janitorial paper products and trash bags, where 85.9 percent of the purchases satisfied sustainability criteria. Also, the facilities staff uses cleaning equipment that is Carpet and Rug Institute Green Label tested and use high-efficiency particulate air filters.

Some of the stadium’s other energy- and water-savings practices include:

• Installing efficient water fixtures to reduce water consumption by 44 percent

• Offsetting 37 percent of its electricity and natural gas use with Green-E certified renewable energy credits (RECs) and nearly 20,000 square feet of solar panels

• Expanding waste reduction efforts beyond its current diversion rate of nearly 63 percent waste from the landfill

• Implementing an indoor air quality management program based on the U.S. EPA standards

• Using filters with a minimum efficiency reporting value (MERV) of 13, which provide higher quality air and remove pollutants.

Read the full article here.