Water Savings Measures at Atlanta Mercedes-Benz Stadium

To understand why Atlanta’s new Mercedes-Benz Stadium is noteworthy–especially for its focus on sustainability and water conservation–it is important to know how the stadium industry has been evolving during the past few years. People are not attending large sports venues the way they were only 10 or 15 years ago. 

This has been verified by recent studies that indicate stadium attendance has been on a steady decline. In 2014, more than 35% of U.S. consumers reported that they had attended a sporting event at a stadium in the past six months. By 2017, that number had dropped to just 27%, according to a study by Gartner, a research and advisory company.

To help turn this trend around, the owners and developers of Mercedes-Benz Stadium took many steps to bring attendees back to the sports venue, including making the stadium sustainability focused. It is the first professional sports stadium in the world to earn Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification.

Gold LEED certification requires a facility to earn 60 to 79 points and platinum requires 80 or more points. Mercedes-Benz Stadium earned 88 points. To reach the Platinum level, the stadium’s administrators developed water-use strategies and installed fixtures that consume far less water–or use it far more efficiently–than ever before in a sports venue.

To read more about the Atlanta Falcons new sustainable stadium, click here.

Time for the hospitality sector to align to the SDGs?

The Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) has called on the food industry to follow the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in order to achieve the innovation required to accelerate climate action.

The SRA made the comments in the foreword to edie’s new insight report on the hospitality and leisure industry, which outlines how the sector can achieve a sustainable future – and ties into the Mission Possible campaign.

The SRA's chief executive Andrew Stephen, said: “If the environmental externalities of our recipes were priced in, then our menus would look very different and price out most of the ‘food citizens’ that we call consumers.

To read more on this article from edie.net, click here.

Urinals have some suprising facts

Urinals are not something we think about very often - women, probably never - but the truth is that urinals have a long and storied history and women have played a role in its evolution.
 
"For instance, it is believed that a woman actually invented the first urinal during the civil war," says Klaus Reichardt, CEO and founder of Waterless Co, Inc. "However, in the 1800's women could not register a patent, so Andrew Rankin followed her and was awarded the first urinal patent in 1886."
 
Reichardt lists some other surprising urinal facts such as the following:
 
 • The oldest waterless urinal was found a few years back in Sri Lanka. The urinal dates back to the 9th century.
 
 • The U.S. industrial revolution made urinals famous. Factories hired hundreds of men, which meant large areas of the factory floor had to be designated for restrooms. By installing urinals, less restroom space was necessary.

To read more from this article on CleanLink.com click here.