Adding to the green scene
Bella Coco, Staff Writer |
Did you know the 2024 Super Bowl was the first sustainable Super Bowl in history? Fully powered by renewable energy, Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas was home to the first renewable Super Bowl.
Now, the sustainability conversation has flown all the way from Las Vegas to Calgary, where pressure has been building about potential sustainability at Calgary’s new Event Centre.
Lead by example
With the City of Calgary preparing to begin their site preparation and the design phase for the new $800 million centre in winter of 2024, people are beginning to wonder how the city is going to apply sustainable practices to the centre and its infrastructure.
Some American stadiums are already paving the way, like Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, home to the Seattle Kraken.
According to Time Magazine, “The Climate Pledge Arena, with its green ambitions raised from above by its environmentally-inclined owners and from below by Seattle’s eco-conscious populace, is an outlier. Its unparalleled commitment to sustainability earned it the title of the world’s first net-zero certified stadium last year.”
Additionally, Seattle citizens are encouraged to take the monorail rather than their vehicles to the arena, and the attendees consume fried food run off of electricity rather than gas.
That leaves the question: What is Calgary’s plan to keep up with sustainable efforts?
C of Green?
Calgary has set some pioneering environmental goals on a city-wide scale, but will this new event centre scale them back?
Despite being in a province that is heavy-handed in the oil and gas industry, one of Calgary’s biggest goals is to reduce their community-wide greenhouse gas emissions to 60 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. In addition, the city hopes to decarbonize completely by 2050.
The question of developing another large building in the city brings up the topic of large emissions. During the building process as well as the time the building runs, it is expected that the carbon footprint may be bigger than needed, as athletic arenas use a large amount of energy.
However, with the planning process still well underway, some Calgary students are confident that the city can keep up the sustainable measures while the centre remains in its early-stage.
“I know we live in a province that doesn’t feel very environmentally friendly sometimes, but I think the city should be able to hopefully stay on track with their plans with environmental goals and the new centre,” one Mount Royal University student said.
According to the City of Calgary, “The Event Centre will be designed and constructed to be LEED certified. The specific design features of the building will be developed during the design phase of the project.”
To be LEED certified means that the building certified has provided a framework for healthy, highly efficient, and cost-saving green buildings, which offer environmental, social and governance benefits.
“We have a really good opportunity to get the design right and execute on something that will be long-lasting and in the best interest of all Calgarians,” Mayor Jyoti Gondek told the Calgary Herald.
The City of Calgary hopes to reveal their design and achieve their development permits by spring or summer of 2024. To see more information, you can visit calgary.ca to view Calgary’s Event Centre and Culture + Entertainment District improvements.
