Earlier this month, I passed along a note that the Pittsburgh Penguins earned some serious kudos for the environmentally conscious construction of their fancy new home, the Consol Energy Center. Perhaps it makes just as much sense, though, that a team named The Wild is receiving awards for how “green” they are going, too.
Here is more from the team’s Web Site.In April, the City of Saint Paul awarded the facilities with the “Sustainable Saint Paul -- Waste Reduction and Recycling Award.” Two months later, the Midwest Society of Association Executives (MSAE) presented Saint Paul RiverCentre with an Award of Excellence in Public Service for the venue’s multifaceted sutainability initiative “50 50 in 2.”
The goal of that program was to reduce the campus trash stream by 50% and increase the recycling rate up to 50% in a two year period. In less than a year, this has resulted over one million pounds of trash from the waste stream and a recycling rate that has doubled to 40%.
The Wild has started a Paperless E-ticket campaign. By cutting the amount of printing of season ticket books, we can save thousands of pounds of paper a year. Additionally, it will be easier for fans to transfer their tickets to others electronically, and the days of forgetting your tickets in the kitchen cupboard will be going the way of slap bracelets. All fans need to do when entering the arena gates is to swipe their card.
In addition to saving trees, there will also be a concerted effort over the next three years to save energy. MSE has implemented the “80 20 in 3" program. The plan for this is to reduce the carbon footprint of the organization’s operations by 80% and become 20% more efficient than average buildings of similar size and purpose. Everything from lighting to heating and cooling will be equipped to reaching these goals.
It’s great to hear that while the team might be a little mediocre on the ice, they’re doing a lot of things to help Minnesota remain a decent place to live off the ice. Hopefully, at some point, NHL teams will become so environmentally savvy that these stories will be the norm, rather than exceptional achievements.