The Wake

For a student who is currently a junior or senior here at the U, there are plenty of reasons to be ambivalent about the new football stadium, which is in its early stages of construction on the East Bank campus. The stadium is not scheduled to open until the 2009 season, and by then it is likely that I (and probably many of you) will be long gone. To move a few steps beyond ambivalence, many people – particularly those who don’t really care about football – are vehemently opposed to the idea of pumping $288.5 million into a stadium designed primarily for a team that will play only six or seven home games per year.

Regardless of your feelings on the matter, it’s tough not to get excited about one measure that is being taken with this stadium that will potentially set it apart from any sports venue in the country. The construction team for TCF Bank Stadium recently applied with LEED to make the stadium the first in the country to become officially green-certified.

LEED, which stands for Leadership in Environmental Energy and Design, is a subsidiary of the U.S. Green Building Council, an organization dedicated to making buildings more sustainable and efficient. Widely recognized as the industry standard for certifying green buildings, LEED awards points in five categories for green-friendly construction. These categories are sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.

According to Brian Swanson, project manager for the construction of TCF Bank Stadium and the accompanying East Gateway District, several measures are being taken to meet the standards of the benchmark program. He named a storm water management system, low-energy light fixtures and power-saving Machine-Room-Less (MRL) elevators as a few examples. Swanson also noted that the stadium is being built on reused urban land, and that it is being constructed with 90 percent recycled steel.

Because the standards for LEED certification are set up for commercial office buildings, Swanson said that making a stadium fit their criteria is “sort of a round peg in a square hole.” He made sure to note, however, that he is “pretty confident” that his team will be able to meet the guidelines and make their project the nation’s first green-certified stadium.

Traditionally, sports arenas have sucked up huge amounts of energy while encouraging commute and creating large amounts of trash. By trying to make TCF Bank Stadium more sustainable, the University is taking a step in the right direction in the eyes of environmentally conscious people everywhere.