INDIANAPOLIS –Indiana Sports Corp, in partnership with AES Indiana, Heritage Interactive Services, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful and IUPUI’s Office of Sustainability, have announced that venue operations of all practices and games during the basketball events last March and April were carbon neutral.
Heritage Interactive Services partnered with ClimeCo to contribute offsets to mitigate the basketball tournament's carbon footprint. Students from IUPUI’s Office of Sustainability calculated actual emissions from data collected across the seven venues, including electricity, gas, steam, and chilled water, to determine the total carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) produced during each game and practice. Heritage worked with ClimeCo to purchase the carbon offsets necessary to balance nearly 5,000 tonnes of CO2e generated during the tournament. The team selected carbon reduction projects across the country, supporting wind energy, landfill gas capture and destruction, and preservation of natural forest habitat.
AES Indiana, a subsidiary of The AES Corporation (NYSE: AES), purchased renewable energy credits (RECs) and applied them toward electricity usage at Hinkle Fieldhouse, Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Lucas Oil Stadium, Indiana Farmers Coliseum, and the Indiana Convention Center. Throughout the tournament, more than 2.2 million kilowatt hours of energy were used to power the practice and tournament facilities. That is equivalent to the amount of electricity it takes to power approximately 2,200 households in Indiana for one full month.
Additionally, as part of Coca-Cola Consolidated’s Refresh Recycle Renew campaign, Republic, the Indiana Convention Center & Lucas Oil Stadium partnered together with Circular Solutions Advisors and Food Loops to get every bottle and can back from games and practices at these venues during the tournament. This effort resulted in 98 percent of all bottles and cans (117,596 cans/3.3 tons) consumed being made into new bottles and cans. All waste, including food, was captured at the championship game held at Lucas Oil Stadium with 70 percent of all waste (2.90 tons) being diverted from the landfill.
These efforts ensured that the tournament was operationally carbon neutral from the time teams arrived in Indiana to after the national championship on April 5 in addition to the recycling collection and landfill diversion efforts.
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About Indiana Sports Corp
Founded in 1979 as the nation’s first sports commission, Indiana Sports Corp is a not-for-profit organization focused on bringing premier sporting events to Indiana to drive economic vitality, facilitate a vibrant community with civic pride and garner positive media attention. Because of this, Indiana Sports Corp is able to provide positive, sports-related opportunities for youth in the community. For more information, please visit IndianaSportsCorp.org.