Rogers Arena's zero-waste initiative strives for a 90 percent diversion from landfill by 2016.
Al Hutchings has been a part of Rogers Arena since the original construction on the building, initially running the electrical end of the venue as a contractor before rolling on to the staff after the building was finished and, for the last 10 years, serving as director of facility maintenance and engineering. He is responsible for energy in the building and for all the waste that comes out of the building.
That said, Hutchings knows the best way to handle his business is to be a good listener, and in this case that means listening to fans, who happen to consider sustainability and the environment very important.
“We have fan-based focus groups that we’re involved with to let them know what’s going on,” he said. “We listen to their concerns. It’s a huge issue with our fans. It’s very important to them which make it extremely important to us.
“In the part of the world we live in you can ski in the morning, play golf in the afternoon and go out boating after that. We’ve got it all here and people want to make sure we keep it for future generations.”
Hutchings said the genesis for the venue’s environmental efforts came literally as the building was going up and that Rogers Arena worked closely with power authority BC Hydro and a Power Smart plan that is still in existence. By participating the arena ensured it had all of the current technologies needed to manage the building into the future.
Hutchings touted a zero-waste initiative whereby the venue’s goal is a 90 percent diversion from landfill by 2016. Everything is recycled in the building and when renovations take place the used materials are taken out to divert from the landfill by recycling. Hutchings said those materials include lamps, batteries and general items such as office paper, cardboard, glass, metal packaging and plastic packaging. He said that since the program started some 2,200 mature trees have been saved.
“We’re encouraging our fans to participate as well,” he said. “We have our tri-sorters all over the building where we recycle and try to keep our trash to a minimum. We’re big-time into it.”
Hutchings said that there are savings in some areas but not in others.
“On the waste side there is a lot more involved with sorting and compostibles to worry about,” he said. “So it may cost you more in some areas but you save on the actual hauling of waste. But on the energy side we definitely realize some future savings.”
Hutchings said the venue installed a new system called EOS that looks at about 5,000 points of the venue’s HVAC and lighting systems every three minutes and makes small changes that have resulted in upwards of a 20 percent savings in energy consumption since the arena went online with the system 18 months ago.
Rogers Arena is also a founding member of the Green Sports Alliance, which since it started in February 2010 has brought together members from more than 300 sports teams and venues from 20 different sports leagues and 14 countries. Members exchange information about better practices and develop solutions to their environmental challenges that are cost-competitive and innovative.
“What we have learned is that sometimes there is a savings but sometimes there isn’t. But we are going to go forward regardless because it’s the right thing to do.”
Interviewed for this story: Al Hutchings, (604) 899-7778