A Tale of Two Teams

MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Twins and the Portland Trail Blazers have joined a growing rank of professional teams with LEED-certified sports facilities.

 

Just in time for the 2010 baseball season, the Twins’ Target Field earned LEED Silver certification, making it the second Major League Baseball ballpark to achieve the designation. Officials invested $2.5 million to make the urban ballpark green. The facility was completed in late 2009 and opened in March.

 

LEED features include the facility being built on previously contaminated soil, construction of a cistern designed to collect storm water and reuse it for irrigation and cleaning, and installation of high-efficiency lighting. The stadium also employs low-flow urinals and dual-flush toilets, a game-day recycling program that keeps an estimated 400 cubic yards of material out of landfills, and convenient access to public transportation, including light rail lines, bus stops, and bicyclist and pedestrian paths.

 

More than 70 percent of the waste generated was recycled or reused in building Target Field. Precautions were taken to control soil erosion, waterway sedimentation and airborne dust during construction.

 

The design/construction team included global architectural firm Populous and Mortenson Construction, headquartered in Minneapolis.

 

The Portland Rose Garden, home to the Trail Blazers basketball team, recently received LEED Gold certification from the USGBC. The owners of the arena spent the last five years upgrading the 15-year-old, 765,000-square-foot facility to make it more efficient.

 

The Rose Garden was the first national sports arena to achieve Gold status under the LEED 2009 for Existing Buildings: Operation & Maintenance certification program, according to the USGBC.

 

The Rose Garden’s sustainable characteristics include walkable access to downtown and to public transportation, a reflective roof that reduces heat island effect, low-flow plumbing fixtures and energy-efficient lighting. The arena purchases 68 percent of its ongoing consumables, 25 percent of its food and 98 percent of its durable goods and electronics from sustainable sources. It recycles 63 percent of waste and compost and supplies rebates to employees who use public transportation.

 

The Rose Garden’s operators plan to purchase 100 percent of the arena’s energy from renewable resources and to pursue an Energy Star rating.