ST. LOUIS — On a recent hot summer evening, thousands of ºüÀêÊÓƵans were in downtown’s CityPark, cheering and clapping. They sipped beer from aluminum cups, ate toasted ravioli from containers made of palm and bamboo materials and ice cream with corn-based spoons.
Since the soccer stadium opened last year, City SC has claimed to have one of the most sustainable sporting venues in the country. The team’s inaugural season had a single “zero-waste game.†This season, with three home matches left, 11 of 14 home CityPark matches have hit that mark.
“Environmental responsibility, I think, is too often thought of as a coastal issue and we actually want to surprise people a bit by taking on these ambitious objectives in the middle of America, but also educate people,†said Matt Sebek, chief experience officer for ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC.
Inside the venue, near Olive and Market streets, all water bottles and cups are made out of thin aluminum. Plates and dishware are compostable, paper receipts are non-existent and paper towels and bathroom tissue are made out of recycled paper. And fans get free soda refills in the $80 ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC logo Yeti tumblers for the 2024 season.
“Last year it was our goal to get to zero-waste. This year it’s the expectation. We know it’s possible,†Sebek said.
Rebecca Sharp of ºüÀêÊÓƵ refills a reusable Yeti rambler straw mug while attending a game between ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC and the San Jose Earthquakes at CityPark Stadium in ºüÀêÊÓƵ on Wednesday, July 3, 2024. Fans can purchase a Yeti rambler straw mug for $79.99 and get free refills for the length of the season.
Zero-waste doesn’t mean no waste. Commonly recognized certification measures define zero-waste as diverting 90% of accumulated trash away from landfills, often by choosing eco-friendly materials or sorting out recycling. This season, the club is also separating aluminum from other recyclables.
Last season, over 700,000 plastic bottles were potentially kept out of the landfill because the club used aluminum cups instead, Sebek said.
“We simplify it for the fans. We don’t put anything out in the stadium that the fans handle during the match, that they can purchase in the stadium, that isn’t compostable or recyclable,†said Joe Abernathy, vice president of operations at CityPark.
Balkan Treat Box manager Cassie O'Connell, right, serves a customer a drink in an aluminum cup at CityPark Stadium in ºüÀêÊÓƵ on Wednesday, July 3, 2024. Aluminum cups are one of the measures taken by City SC to increase sustainability.
During City SC’s mid-July match against the Vancouver Whitecaps FC, workers collected and sorted 5,112 pounds of compost and 4,313 pounds of recyclables. Only 1,019 pounds of trash was sent to a landfill.
A lot of underground effort goes into these metrics.
On match days, a team of eight workers stationed in the bowels of CityPark, underneath the pitch, sorts and organizes the stadium’s trash from 4 p.m. to about 4 a.m. Everything gets picked up by ºüÀêÊÓƵ Composting and Waste Connections in the morning.
“They’ll be collecting trash the entire game,†said Jennifer Schwab, project manager of the contracted ABM Industries. “They will sort the entire time.â€
Sustainability has been baked into CityPark from the start, said Chris DeVolder, director of sports, recreation and entertainment at HOK, the global architecture firm that designed the 22,500-seat stadium. It took three years and $500 million to design and build.
Other major ºüÀêÊÓƵ sports venues — Enterprise Center and Busch Stadium — have made changes, but are operating in venues not built with sustainability goals in mind.
The Enterprise Center has made upgrades to reduce energy consumption and waste creation, according to Roger Hacker, spokesperson for the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Blues, which oversees the operations of Enterprise Center and Stifel Theatre.
José González (from left), Pablo Ochoa and Samuel Moncada sort waste inside of CityPark Stadium in ºüÀêÊÓƵ on Wednesday, July 3, 2024.
The arena has installed energy efficient air handler units, efficient rink-making equipment, humidity control systems and LED lights fixtures over the years. Hacker said Enterprise Center also participates in an on-demand energy usage reduction program through Ameren to reduce strain on the electrical grid system during summer months.
They use compostable paper plates, utensils and carry trays and work with partners like Pepsi and Anheuser-Busch that use compostable or recyclable packaging. Neither Enterprise Center or Stifel Theatre track diversion rates.
An assortment of recyclable and compostable concession items are used at CityPark Stadium in ºüÀêÊÓƵ, seen Wednesday, July 3, 2024.
According to the Cardinals’ website, the team’s “4 A Greener Game†program at Busch Stadium has diverted over 9,270 tons of waste from the stadium trash disposal and local landfills since 2008. Last year, its diversion rate was 37%.
Busch Stadium also uses LED lights and solar panels and, last year, replaced plastic draft beer cups with aluminum cups.
Such changes help, but using LED lighting or placing recycling cans around a venue aren’t big sustainability accomplishments anymore, said Mohit Mehta, the global head of sustainability at design firm Populous.
For buildings to be truly sustainable, efforts need to be holistic and in the philosophy of the design, said Mehta, who worked on CityPark.
The sustainability challenge now is to get better at incorporating environmental features, said DeVolder, of HOK.
“We as an industry have gotten good at designing it as a baseline,†DeVolder said. “We want to continue to push the bar higher.â€
At CityPark, there are 27 electric car charging stations, more than 100 bike parking spots, low-flow toilets and urinals, 100% of the lights are LED and the venue uses energy efficient mechanical and electrical equipment.
Adidas player kits are made with recycled fabric and the club worked with MLS vendors to reduce plastic product packaging for souvenirs and giveaways, according to ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC spokesperson Courtney Mueller.
They use soil moisture sensors and GPS mapping to help minimize the amount of water used on the field’s Northbridge Bermudagrass and the stadium’s 25 local food vendors source ingredients locally, cutting down on emissions and costs associated with shipping in food from states away.
“We’re pretty proud with what we’re doing but humble in the sense that there’s so much more,†said Abernathy, the CityPark operations vice president. “Are we perfect yet? No. We’ve been able to demonstrate on a match day we can do it. Our challenge is to try and do that every day, every month.â€
A study has revealed that 56 lead brands are responsible for more than 50% of plastic pollution globally, with Coca-Cola the lead offender.
