Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)

The Role of LEED in Enhancing Sports and Climate Change

The United States Green Building Council established the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Voluntary Program to investigate the environmental performances of structures or buildings and embrace industry change toward sustainable designs (Lana). LEED is known as a credit-based scheme and it encourages developers to win credits by doing environmentally responsible measures during the design and use of the house. LEED was created specifically to create a consensus-based, market-oriented banking system to drive green building design, growth, and implementation. LEED products are available for homes, core and shells, schools, healthcare, new construction and major renovations, commercial interiors, and neighborhood development. In this Research, I am going to explore on the role of LEED is enhancing sports with the ultimate goal for the health of the athlete in relation to the climate change worldwide and the benefits resulting from LEED operations.

The Influence of Climate Change on Sports

As the world is experiencing Global warming, the climate becomes a greatest influence on sports and reaction. Climates change has become a major concern to the sports bodies such as the International Association of Athletes Federation and Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) because they understand the connection between the bad weather and the health of the athletes (Lana). The performances of the sportsmen have been proven to be affected by bad weathers such as cold, high temperatures and contaminated air. Therefore, LEED is engaging with the international sports bodies to ensure that athletes are protected against bad climate.

Creating Environmentally Friendly Sports Facilities

LEED is much concern about the development of the sports facilities that are environmentally friendly as well as helpful to athletes. The Organization ensures that the stadiums that are used are well structured in a way that they do not cause climate issues such as emission of toxic gases that contribute to the Global warming. LEED embraces indoor sports to protect athlete against bad weather such as cold or extremely high temperature. The programs contribute to the development of the economy; for example, in the United States, cold weather sports add about $12 billion to the economy annually and employs over 200,000 people (Jim, Krans, and Goatley). Due to the positive environmental and economic impact caused by the encouragement of the indoor sports, LEED among other sports programs such as the National Ski Areas Association have created a Climate Challenge Program, oriented to adding ski areas to reduce the greenhouse gas emission and the rise energy efficiency.

The Impact of Climate Change on Winter Olympics

The recent study in relation to the winter Olympics, it showed that by the mid of 21st century, about half of the past Olympics host cities would probably be too warm for the outdoor Alpine sports and by end of the 21st century only 6 of the past 19 Winter Olympics cities would be cold enough to meet the requirements of the Winter Olympics (Jim, Krans, and Goatley). In the past winter Olympics which was held in Russia, there was a major problem to the entire economy of the country because the temperatures were very high and it forced the sports sector in Russia to inject over $50 billion to aid in controlling temperatures. Sochi Games became the most expensive Olympics in history due to the cost they organizers use to preserve hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of the artificial snow. Based on Russia experience, LEED finds its objective adequate, and therefore, the world community in the sports industry must consider bad weather through certification of the sports facilities by the LEED as a way of preserving the environment and reducing the costs.

Promoting Green Building in Sports Arenas

The sports arenas that have earned the certification from LEED are less thus it is high time for the nations and the international sports organization such as IAAF and FIFA to strategize on making the major renovation of the existing sports arenas to embrace the green operation. The sports arenas that have not been renovated should consider performing benchmark using good examples such as the Bell Center in North America. In 2009, The Bell Center received its LEED Certification EBO&M because by that time it was 35% efficient in preserving energy than any other arena of similar type in North America (Jim, Krans, and Goatley). So far the Bell Center is still the only arena to earn 3 independent environmental certifications. The major sports events such as the diamond leagues are supposed to be held in nations and arenas where energy saving is more efficient.

Protecting Marathoners and Athletes

Various researchers and personal observations, the international athlete organizers such as the marathon organizers should consider strong campaigns for keeping the environment clean through energy saving because the marathoners always encounter challenges while racing for example there are many cases where some of the marathoners have lost their lives after participating in full or half marathon mostly in nations where energy preservation is poor (Jim, Krans, and Goatley). Global warming is the key killer of the marathoners considering that they run for long distances causing a lot of heat generation is the bodies and eventually leads to dehydration. According to the research which was done by the European Commission scientists, hundreds of people are likely to be killed by breathing problems, flash flooding, heart strokes due to the adverse changes in the world climate and most of the people who are likely to die are the aged persons and the athletes who spent most of their time practicing under unfriendly weather conditions.

Benefits of LEED Certification

LEED certifications can significantly help in saving the entire world against bad climates caused by the poor saving of energy. The development of the green building particularly the sports arenas will impact on the environment and offers a special consideration to the environment change. LEED gives a procedure to quantify the benefits that were considered difficult to quantify in a consistent manner; for example putting things like energy and water efficiency, green materials and the indoor air quality into important because it will help in keeping the welfare of the sportspersons (Jim, Krans, and Goatley).

Increasing Participation and Economic Stability

The strategies used by LEED will benefit all the sportspersons across all types of games considering that if sports facilities meet the LEED standards, the number of the participants will eventually increase (Jim, Krans, and Goatley). The increase in the number of the sportsmen and women worldwide will contribute to the global economic stability because many people will participate in watching and playing thus the subscription fee will help in building the entire economy.

The Overall Benefits of LEED

Green building helps in saving energy. The results for saving energy will ultimately lead to friendly weather both to the sportsperson and the entire world; hence the issues connected to global warming or bad weather will reduce (Lana). The funds that could have been used to control the weather just like what happened in Russia during the Sochi Games will be used to advance the track events through the development of systems that can help in protecting athletes against internal and external injuries. Sportsperson deserves great awards after completing various games but due to the much concentration on the reacting to the bad weather conditions though could have been solved once and for all by adhering to the LEED constriction standards, athletes are being awarded poorly by the sports organizers. The general benefits of the LEED standards include the stabilization of the economy due to the reduction of the expenses that are used during the emergency calamities such as extreme cold, extreme hot weathers and diseases outbreak that is caused by the toxic atmosphere (Jim, Krans, and Goatley). The entire world can benefit if all the constructions will be constructed in accordance with the standards suggested by LEED.

In Conclusion

In conclusion, LEED plays a major role in designing, development, and implementation of environmentally friendly buildings (green buildings). It helps in providing guidelines that can aid in protecting the health of the sportspersons and the entire world. Based on the good results that have been demonstrated by the view sports arenas and some of the commercial buildings, it is high time for governments, sports associations and every individual to back LEED trough renovation and development of a new building that can help in saving energy. Furthermore, the lead should consider launching huge campaigns in the nations that are ranked the highest emitters of toxic gas such as carbon as a way of encouraging preservation of the atmosphere and climates in most affected parts of the world.

Work Cited

Huberty, Lana L. Using Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (leed) Certification to Solicit Sponsorships: A Strategic Framework for Public Sport Facility Marketers. , 2013. Internet resource.

Puhalla, Jim, Jeff Krans, and Mike Goatley. Sports Fields: Design, Construction, and Maintenance. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley, 2016. Print.