Penguin’s New Stadium Hopes to be LEED Gold
NHL playoffs are heating up with the beginning of the second round just starting. I actually have no interest in hockey, but a friend of mine who is an avid Penguins fan sent me a link to an article about the construction of their new stadium. Pittsburgh’s new Consol Energy Center could be the first stadium in the country to achieve an LEED Gold certification. Other stadiums in the country have already been recognized with a LEED certification, but none as high as gold. The country’s currently most “green” stadium is the Washington National’s stadium recognized with an LEED silver certification.
It’s great to see that the Pittsburgh Penguins and other organizations are putting the effort to make their new building more sustainable. The budget for the new stadium is at $321 million, which did not increase in order to try obtaining the certification. That makes a huge statement for other buildings across the country. Deciding to make the Consol Energy Center more sustainable could actually save them money in the long run by dramatically lowering their energy costs. Neither of the $1.5 billion Yankee Stadium and the $850 million home of the New York Met have any certification, yet they spent several times more than the Penguin’s stadium. I’m sure that if either of those organization would have put the effort into obtaining an LEED certification, it would have kept them in line with their original budget.
The Consol Energy Center is planned to built by the 2010-2011 hockey season and would be evaluated for the LEED certification at that time. Let’s hope this new stadium achieves the gold status and sets a precedence for future sports stadiums.
Comments
friendship between sport and ecology is very important
I’m not sure of the difference between LEED and LEED gold but our new office building is LEED and while it seems a little ‘greener’ than most it still kills me that I see half of the lights on after 9pm. And trust me no one is working.
the green thing would have been not to build a new stadium in the first place. Think of all the materials used and all the trash going to the dumb from their old stadium.