Before a baseball game at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona, Diamondback fans mill around the stadium entrance. An open-air pavilion topped with solar panels provides relief from the blazing sun.

Rossini: “We’re able to use the solar pavilion as a way to create some shade on that high traffic part of the ball park but then also take advantage of solar output that we put back on the grid.”

Graham Rossini is the Diamondbacks’ vice president of special projects and fan experience. He says the seventeen-thousand square foot pavilion is just one way the team is working to promote sustainability.

The Diamondbacks have also installed low-flow sinks and toilets, LED concourse lights, and electric vehicle charging stations. Grease from concessions is recycled into biodegradable diesel fuel.

Rossini says stadiums can model environmental behavior for fans who may not have thought much about sustainability.

Rossini: “They can take cues from the ball park and hopefully incorporate some of that behavior back into their own day-to-day lives.”

And he says the team’s initiatives can inspire other companies to adopt eco-friendly practices.

Rossini: “We really want to get out in front and help influence other businesses or other sports teams in our market to say let’s kind of lock arms and go down this road together.”

Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy/ChavoBart Digital Media.