The National Institute of Building Sciences is advising the owners of the nation’s estimated 1,500 professional, college and community sports venues to join in a collective effort to reduce energy and water consumption—and utility bills. But a lack of building performance benchmarking data is getting in the way of progress, says NIBS.

“Collecting benchmarking data represents the biggest challenge by far. … Without it, we cannot drive ahead,” says Ryan M. Colker, adviser to the president of NIBS, which recently released a 66-page study, “Taking the Field: Advancing Energy and Water Efficiency in Sports Venues,” produced for the U.S. Dept. of Energy by NIBS and the Green Sports Alliance.

报告说，成功的可持续性策略必须纳入当前的绩效，并设定现实的改进目标。为此，Nibs和Alliance正在向机构所有者发出呼吁，以参加有关能源和用水的基准测试调查。Colker说，自去年夏天以来开放的100个问题调查需要数百次提交才能创建一个有用的数据库。迄今为止，NIBS收到的表格少于50。因此，响应的截止日期再次延长至下个月中旬。

Colker说，尽管有一个美国环境保护局能源明星标签，该标签是公共组装大楼的评分，但没有专门用于体育场所的标签。他补充说：“ EPA有兴趣开发一个。”

体育场地开始专注于可持续性。迄今为止，有80个LEED认证的体育场所和68支拥有能源效率计划的团队。去年，萨克拉曼多的Golden 1信用合作社中心成为第一个获得LEED白金名称的室内运动场所。报告称，全国曲棍球联盟和AEG Worldwide领先于基准表现和监测进度。

There are also some facilities reaping savings. Over six years, the Major League Baseball Seattle Mariners saved some $1.5 million in utility costs through investments in energy and water savings. The University of Minnesota saves $412,000 annually. In 2015, nearly a third of National Football League teams played or trained at places that generated 10 million kWh per year of solar power.

Many facilities are ripe for rehabilitation, which might include energy and water retrofits. According to the report, NFL facilities, with an average age of 25.35 years, haven’t renovated for almost 12 years, on average. It has been 19 years, on average, since the MLB parks have renovated and 12 years since National Hockey League and/or National Basketball Association arenas have been renovated.

The $150,000 report lays out a general game plan for moving the conservation needle forward. For this, it recommends a partnership of architects, engineers, owners, operators, vendors and spectators. But first, owners need to submit the forms for the benchmarking survey, says Colker.