The newly opened Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins, expects to get about 70 percent of its energy needs from an agreement to purchase RECs, said Kevin Smith of the Twins.
The field, which on April 8 became the second major league baseball stadium to achieve LEED Silver certification after the Washington Nationals' field, expects to avoid 8.8 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions as a result of the deal, according to the club.
Additionally, captured waste energy from the nearby Hennepin Energy Resource Center will be used to heat most indoor spaces and the playing field.
By using high-efficiency field lighting, the club expects to save $6,000 a year.
Recyclable collection services expect to recover about 400 cubic yards of recyclables during each three-game home stand.
In the stadium's construction, 70 percent of construction waste was diverted or recycled.
About 30 percent of installed materials, including the foul poles and roof canopy, were made of recycled materials.
For about 60 percent of the exterior, the builders also used limestone sourced from Mankato, Minn., which is about a 90-minute drive from the stadium.
In terms of water use, the field will use a rainwater recycling system that should help reduce the need for municipal water by 50 percent. That effort alone should save 2 million gallons of water a year, with water reused for cleaning off the stadium's lower decks.
Some other water efficiency measures include regulated lavatory faucets and low-flow urinals, which are expected to save 560,000 gallons of water per year. The low-maintenance landscape design should save 4.8 million gallons of water per year.
Other stadiums are taking efforts to reduce water use, including the new Meadowlands stadium in New Jersey, which touts decreased water use of 25 percent.
In all, Target Field collected 36 LEED certification points, or two more than attained by Nationals Park.
Editor's note: Due to incorrect information from the source, the story originally referred to the renewable energy deal as a power purchase agreement. The article has been updated to correctly state the nature of the agreement.
