PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The GOAL sustainability platform, founded by Oak View Group (OVG), the Atlanta Hawks & State Farm Arena, Fenway Sports Group, and green building expert Jason F. McLennan, today announced a collective of major venues from across the globe who have joined the fight for social impact, climate action, and responsible change.
These venues, representing legendary teams and iconic places of mass assembly, are committed to leading, learning, collaborating, and, in all cases, making a positive impact on their communities and for the planet. In addition to tracking their own climate adaptation and mitigation progress, this group will help beta test the GOAL Platform, ensuring that the online tool and facilitated collaboration opportunities is designed for operators, by operators.
The Founding Circle members represent different sports, different geographies, and different building types of varying sizes and ages, ensuring that the input and feedback is worthy of the diversity of the live entertainment and hospitality industry. Some venues are already leading the way when it comes to climate action, and others are just beginning their respective journeys. But in all cases, these venues are action-oriented, climate-minded, and understand the urgency required to address a changing planet.
The Founding Circle members include:
- Acrisure Arena (Greater Palm Springs, CA)
- Budweiser Gardens (London, ON)
- Citi Field (New York, NY)
- Climate Pledge Arena (Seattle, WA)
- Co-op Live (Manchester, UK)
- Fenway Sports Group (Boston, MA)
- Footprint Center (Phoenix, AZ)
- FTX Arena (Miami, FL)
- Gainbridge Fieldhouse (Indianapolis, IN)
- Levi’s® Stadium (Santa Clara, CA)
- Moda Center (Portland, OR)
- Moody Center at University of Texas Austin (Austin, TX)
- Mullett Arena at Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ)
- PPG Paints Arena (Pittsburgh, PA)
- Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (Cleveland, OH)
- State Farm Arena (Atlanta, GA)
- UBS Arena (Belmont Park, NY)
“Our Founding Circle partners are some of the most influential and forward-thinking venues across the sports, live entertainment and convention industry,” Chris Granger, president of OVG360, said. “I applaud them for their leadership, for their spirit of collaboration, and for their understanding of the urgency demanded by climate change. I look forward to working with them, learning from them, and sharing the very best ideas and best practices with our industry as we race against the clock, together.”
“LEED certification has been a great start for venues to benchmark their sustainability initiatives,” said Eric Woolworth, president of The HEAT Group’s Business Operations. “But GOAL offers something much more dynamic: the ability to share information and best practices amongst facilities trying to make a difference in this space in real-time, and a way to accelerate sustainability efforts with the GOAL of reducing carbon footprints. The Miami HEAT and FTX Arena are both excited and proud to be founding members.”
“Sustainability is integral to UBS Arena’s operations. It’s evidenced by our continued investment in carbon reduction and offset strategies. We continuously challenge ourselves to improve, and our next goal is to be zero waste by the end of 2023. Therefore, joining GOAL as a member of the Founding Circle was an unmistakable next step,” Kim Stone, UBS Arena president and OVG East Coast EVP, said. “The ability to learn from other venues, share successes and use new tools to track our progress and hold ourselves accountable will change the status-quo of sports and live entertainment across the globe. UBS Arena is proud to contribute to this industry movement.”
"We are proud to be Founding Circle members of the GOAL sustainability program partnering with numerous venues across North America," said Dewayne Hankins, President of Business Operations, Portland Trail Blazers & Rose Quarter. "Sustainability and climate action are at the forefront of everything we do across Rose Quarter operations, evident in our new Rip City Reuse program and LEED Platinum recertification. While individual efforts are a great starting point, the ability to share information and best-practices with similarly-aligned venues is a tremendous opportunity to raise the level of sustainability efforts across the industry."
Recognizing that diverse venues are at various stages in their respective sustainability journeys, GOAL will meet venues where they are, providing them with tactical roadmaps, easy-to-use tracking tools, a library of resources & case studies, and access to like-minded, leading operators, vendors, and solution-providers, all committed to operating more sustainably, more urgently.
“After we have beta tested the platform with our inspiring roster of Founding Circle members, we will invite additional venues to join the movement,” Kristen Fulmer, OVG’s sustainability director, said. “We want to right-size the platform to make sure that the data points and thresholds for leadership meet venues anywhere along their sustainability journey, engaging – and without shaming - venues that are just getting started, while also enhancing efforts in venues that already make an impact in a variety of different topics, from waste diversion, to water conservation, to improved indoor air quality.”
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About GOAL
GOAL, which stands for Green Operations & Advanced Leadership, is a sustainability program for arenas, stadiums, convention centers, and other types of public assembly venues in the sports and entertainment industry. Members of GOAL will have access to a digital portal that defines a broad set of sustainability standards specifically designed for venues, a tactical roadmap for achieving those standards, and a customized tracking tool. The online platform includes a library of resources and provides a forum to collaborate with like-minded operators, vendors, and sponsors who are committed to operating more sustainably. The GOAL membership portal is powered by software developed in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and modeled after the industry-leading work at the Oak View Group owned-and-operated Climate Pledge Arena. Venues can regularly track their performance against scientifically backed standards in ESG categories – such as energy and water use, greenhouse gas emissions, waste management, indoor air quality, and health and wellbeing – as well as compare to similarly situated venues and be recognized for their progress. The Founding Partners of GOAL are Oak View Group, the Atlanta Hawks & State Farm Arena, Fenway Sports Group, and green building trailblazer Jason F. McLennan, founder of McLennan Design. For more information, visit www.GOALstandard.com or contact info@GOALstandard.com.
