The City of Manchester Stadium will become the first stadium in the world to be solely powered by renewable energy.
From 2007, it will have an 85m high wind turbine, which will also produce enough energy to power 1250 other homes in Manchester. Any home or business in Manchester will be able to tap into the surplus and buy environmentally-friendly power from Ecotricity at the same price as from their regional supplier.
In a similar way, the new stadiums for the World Cup this past summer had a variety of environmental features:
- a commitment to reducing waste, energy and water use by 20%
- containers for collecting up to 1,000m3 of rain water for watering the pitch areas
- car-park surfaces treated to allow water seepage
Just as every other sector of the economy has to address energy use, carbon emissions and reducing waste, football should as well. I noticed, when in town for the Green Party autumn conference, that Brighton's city council has stars of the Seagulls advertising recycling initiatives. There already is a Green Travel Plan in place for events at the Ricoh, but many of these features could have been incorporated into the stadium when it was built, or they could be retrofitted now. Seeing the Ricoh powered by a wind turbine could easily lead to tens of thousands of supporters considering a switchover to a green electricity tariff as well.
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