Driving Stadium Performance Improvements by Optimising Sustainability Certification Systems and Green Building Rating Schemes

Due to their unique structural and operational characteristics, stadiums create substantial environmental impacts throughout their lifecycle. Assessing the environmental sustainability (ES) of stadiums is important to identify opportunities for targeted improvements and enabling a transition towards environmentally sustainable stadiums (ESSs). This paper investigates how sustainability certification systems and green building rating schemes (GBRSs) can be optimised for effective application in stadiums to improve ES outcomes. A qualitative exploratory approach using in-depth semi-structured interviews, followed by the thematic analysis of qualitative data using NVivo, was applied to examine the suitability of existing certifications and rating systems in stadiums. Twenty stadium and sustainability experts from diverse global regions participated in semi-structured interviews. Three overarching themes emerged, offering insights into how ES certifications and GBRSs can be optimised for use in stadium settings. These themes encompass the ES challenges that stadiums face and the benefits and limitations of existing assessment tools. This study identified “Green Operations and Advanced Leadership” (GOAL) as the only sustainability certification designed specifically for application in venues and stadiums. This paper proposes a set of recommendations to improve the application of certifications and GBRSs in stadiums. These recommendations enable designers, stadium owners, and decision makers to advance stadium sustainability through the more effective use of certification frameworks and rating systems.