Pittsburgh Steelers
As environmental and social issues become increasingly apparent both locally and globally, the Steelers have the opportunity to champion Pittsburgh’s increasingly green reputation through the team’s own operations, communications and places, most notably the celebrated Heinz Field stadium. evolveEA was enlisted to lead a comprehensive sustainability evaluation for the Steelers, covering the organization’s People, Processes, and Places.
A focus of this work was to assist the Steelers in shaping a strategic approach to conserving resources and cutting waste at Heinz Field while leveraging green initiatives for economic value. Beginning with an assessment in which various levels of the organization and its stakeholders were surveyed about their views on sustainability, the Steelers gained a deep understanding of how environmental initiatives can support or enhance their brand and reinforce the team’s values.
evolveEA also performed Qualitative Industry Benchmarking to review the initiatives of other sports teams and help the Steelers understand their current standing relative to their industry. This effort covered the built environment (Places), facility and organizational operations (Processes), and human behavior and awareness (People). By comparing itself to similar organizations, the Steelers are able to identify key improvement opportunities for the team to establish a leadership position with its sustainability initiatives.
An important initiative of the Steelers is their commitment to the Pittsburgh 2030 District. Organized by the Green Building Alliance, “the Pittsburgh 2030 District is a collaborative, nationally recognized, but local community of high performance buildings in Downtown Pittsburgh that aims to dramatically reduce energy and water consumption, reduce emissions from transportation, and improve indoor air quality while increasing competitiveness in the business environment and owners’ returns on investment.” evolveEA helped the Steelers promote upgrades at Heinz Field and plan and implement further improvements in pursuit of the 2030 District targets.
Other frameworks, such as membership in the Green Sports Alliance, Energy Star certification, and LEED for Existing Buildings were also analyzed as potential goals for the Steelers and Heinz Field. evolveEA managed energy and waste audits in order to assist the Steelers in identifying key areas for improvement of their physical facilities. evolveEA helped the Steelers develop a strategy to systematically tackle its sustainability goals based on findings from our audits and from purchasing and transportation reviews.
Working with evolveEA, the Steelers found that if environmental issues are addressed and communicated properly, the team can save a significant amount of money, and further enhance Pittsburghers’ quality of life and pride in their city’s champions.
Energy Audit
With the help of Pitchford Diversified Inc. the evolveEA team performed and energy audit, identified energy saving measures, and calculated return on investment. The audit was especially unusual since it is primarily an outdoor facility with distributed infrastructure.
Waste Audit
The evolveEA team analyzed the waste stream of Heinz Field on game day, during club events, and regular daily office operations to evaluation different magnitude and waste stream types. The team evaulated waste flows, purchasing, and disposal to give recommendations to improve diversion rates, efficiencies and cost savings.