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St. Pete Times Forum Goes Green!
8/11/2008
ST. PETE TIMES FORUM CONTINUES TO EXPAND GREEN INITIATIVES
Arena Wins 2008 Outstanding Business/Organization For Waste Reduction!
The St. Pete Times Forum, home of the 2004 Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning, Five-Time Arena Football Champions the Tampa Bay Storm, and consistently ranked in the top 10 arenas in the world for gross ticket sales, continues to expand upon its initiative to Go Green and Recycle! The St. Pete Times Forum's focus has been to make an environmental difference in the Tampa Bay community. From Tampa Bay Lightning branded recycling bins throughout the venue to buttons with "Ask me about recycling" worn by Guest Service Employees, the venue is looking to spread the message. Even special ticket discounts have even been offered to those who ride a bike or take public transportation.
"We as an organization are very committed to this cause," stated Mary Milne, Vice President of Operations. "There are many things on both large and small scales that every business can put into place to make a difference," she continued.
The "green arena" has won numerous awards recognizing recycling and environmentally friendly policies, including:
- 2004 and 2008 Clean Air Partnership Award given by Environmental Protection Commission for outstanding efforts at encouraging employees to utilize commuter options.
- 2007 and 2008 Business Bicycle Challenge given by Tampa Bay Cycles for getting the most number of employees to participate in the Ride Your Bike to Work Campaign.
- 2007 Hillsborough County Green Business Award for outstanding Waste Reduction and Recycling Practices.
- 2008 Outstanding Business/Organization for Waste Reduction, given by the statewide group Florida Recycles Today.
The St. Pete Times Forum recycles an average of 24,000 pounds of beverage containers annually. That is equal to 600,000 plastic bottles and aluminum cans! A "behind the scenes" recycling champion since 2003, the arena has instated numerous policies and procedures to achieve these recycling successes.
- Recycling containers in all employee break rooms and in strategic places throughout the venue, including gates, concourses, and all suites, for guests to recycle bottles and cans.
- Staff at vendor carts pour beverages from aluminum cans into cups; the cans are collected and recycled.
All liquor and wine bottles are recycled.
- Ushers, concierges, and suite servers combine forces to collect post-event recyclables left behind in the stands and suites.
The St. Pete Times Forum's recycling efforts reduce greenhouse gas emissions equal to taking 123 cars off the road a year.
- Employees are actively encouraged to use alternate forms of transportation, i.e. riding a bike, take the bus, etc, and provide showers for those that do.
- Preferred parking is offered to employees that car pool to work.
- Old light bulbs, electronic equipment, and 100% of restaurant grease, which can be used as biodiesel, are recycled.
- Fill in cooling towers have been replaced to increase efficiency, cellinoid valves have been installed on the water cooling system, motors in air handlers have been changed to more energy efficient models, and the arena has converted to all "Green Seal" cleaning chemicals.
The St. Pete Times Forum urges guests to join in support of the venue's green initiatives. Patrons are encouraged to arrive via public transportation or by bicycle and special ticket offers to Tampa Bay Lightning and Storm games have been provided to those that do.
Our energy savings from our recycling efforts equal a total of the energy used by 30 houses per year.
- A generator is used during events and at all peak power demand times.
- Elevators are switched off during non-event times.
- All of our light bulbs and fixtures have been switched to more energy efficient models and a Micro Light System powers off lights at designated times.
- Air dams and walls were installed to control airflow in the arena bowl and a cut through door was made in the large roll-up door to increase energy efficiency.
- Air Curtains were installed to active outside door openings to better control energy management.
- Stair towers are locked during non-event times to reduce the number of door openings.
- A power trending system was implemented for energy management.
The arena is dedicated to water and energy conservation and saves an average of 1,665,000 gallons of water annually.
- Waterless urinals were installed in all 37 public restrooms reducing water consumption and saving energy.
- The building's water tower is refilled at non peak times.
The St. Pete Times Forum's paper recycling program saves 576 trees annually from having to be cut down, 336,000 gallons of water, 22,224 gallons of oil and more than 144 cubic yards of landfill space.
- Among the many items recycled are: unused game and event programs, pizza boxes, left over Thunderstix, construction waste materials, and old carpeting.
- Every office within the building has recycle containers.
- 100% of the used cardboard within the building is packaged with the venue's own a cardboard bailer and subsequently recycled.
- Free tickets to Tampa Bay Storm games have been offered in exchange for guests bringing phone books and old electronics to be recycled.
- The arena promoted re-use by donating 100 plus trash cans to Non Profit Group, Teaching Tools for Hillsborough County.
Pollstar - the international newsweekly of the music industry, and one of the concert industry's leading publications, released a report on ticket sales for the first half of 2008. The St. Pete Times Forum ranked as the number two arena in the United States, behind New York City's Madison Square Gardens, and eleventh in the world, with a total of 236,038 tickets sold to concerts, events and family shows for the period of 1/1/08 - 6/30/08. The study ranked the top 100 venues in the world by actual ticket sales for concert events and family shows.
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