BC Place: Turning old problems into modern solutions

BC Place opened in June 1983 after a two-year construction period and has since been renovated twice, in 2009 and 2011.

Despite its relatively old age it has maintained its world-class status, highlighted by the awarding of seven matches to the venue for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Moreover, it has built a reputation for forward-thinking environmental initiatives, although this mindset has come with obvious challenges in a building that was built before sustainability was truly recognised.

“BC Place’s age has absolutely caused us sustainability challenges because it was not at the forefront of designer’s and architect’s minds when it was built,” BC Place General Manager Chris May tells Global Sustainable Sport.

“This building was in construction in the late 1970s so that was not focused on. It will continually be, as long as this building exists, a matter of forcing sustainability and improving sustainability in a venue that never really thought about that at the beginning.

“That in itself is a huge challenge. It is why the culture is so important: ensuring that in a more than 40-year-old concrete building you have people that care about sustainability.

“Having them think about it is vital because it is as much about the little day-to-day things as those big pieces of movement.”

Careful spending

The cost of structural updates in an older building is typically more expensive than installing more efficient changes in a venue that is designed to accommodate them.

As a result, BC Place has to be extremely careful in its approach, and deciding where to focus its investment in order to be as sustainable as possible.

May and the rest of the leadership team carry out ongoing upgrades wherever possible away from big projects. These have led to a modernisation of the stadium’s air-conditioning and refrigeration systems, moving to heat pumps, and switching to LED lighting.

The introduction of LED lighting has resulted in energy savings of around 744,000kWh per year which represented a decrease in energy usage of more than 50 per cent in comparison with the previous system.

The venue has also developed a rainwater harvesting project that has the capacity to collect 21,000 gallons of water that is used to support operational needs such as turf irrigation, turf cover cleaning, and power washing.

Although these have had noticeable effects, May is adamant that instilling a culture of sustainability among staff has been the most beneficial decision.

“Sustainability is a priority for just about everyone here,” he says. “We have taken big steps since the COVID-19 pandemic, which spurred us into thinking more about environmental initiatives. It has been a solid priority for us for four to five years.”

Next steps

Achieving the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification, also known as LEED, has been identified as the next crucial milestone for BC Place.

The team is also evaluating its waste sorting operations and has reset its waste diversion goals. The whole of British Columbia, the Canadian province in which BC Place is located, has committed to keeping 95 per cent of residential food and yard waste out of landfills by 2030. Since December last year, British Columbia has also banned single-use plastic cutlery, with wooden knives and forks only available on request.

Furthermore, the venue is currently heated by steam, which May has recognised as being highly inefficient in the present day. Therefore, one of the main priorities is to make that system as effectual as possible.

“We’ve also got something that I have to be somewhat cryptic about,” he says. “There is a very interesting sustainability-based power heating start-up in Vancouver and we are in partnership discussions with them to become an innovation hub for them to test and learn their product.

“If it works, and from what we have seen it should, it will be a game-changer for us especially around the steam heating and the massive inefficiencies that come from that.”

BC Place has built a reputation for itself as a multi-purpose stadium as it has hosted a vast array of different events. These include Canadian football, soccer, rugby sevens, the 2010 Winter Olympic opening and closing ceremonies, and concerts including three shows for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour this December.

Next month, it will be heading off into another new direction with the hosting of the World Supercross Championship. It will be the opening round of the competition’s 2024 season and is due to take place on October 26.

It is an undisputed fact that supercross is a sport that is bad for the environment, but May insists it will be an important event to hold for the venue and that his team will be pulling out all of the stops to make it as sustainable as possible.

“We have the reality of a really big asset that is still underutilised, and that we have a mandate from our government to provide both community benefit and to reach operational profitability with the building. So, there is always that balance to figure out,” May says.

“This is a test for us in a variety of areas. We had the team over in Birmingham last year to observe so we have been planning well in advance. We have been working on things like how to find the right dirt in the most sustainable way. Where does it go afterwards? How are we operating?

“There is a reality with this one that we need to work through the first year and see how we can hopefully make it more sustainable for a second year.

“It goes back to culture again. I have trust in our team that they are looking at options and not just saying, ‘It is what it is.’

“They are thinking through the choices: ‘Where are we going to get the supply for that dirt? How are we doing the transporting? How are we setting up the schedule for when we bring in enormous amounts of trucks so that they are not sitting in traffic?’ Those are the types of things that we are approaching sustainably.”