There have been several sports facilities receiving LEED certification, but these have all received silver certification. Gold is the next level up; platinum is the top level.

The new 18,087-seat Pens arena is slated to open in the 2010-2011 season.

Despite budget woes that will force organizers to tone down the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the Vancouver Organizing Committee says it's on schedule to create the most eco-friendly games in history.

At least, that's the game plan as measured in the third annual corporate Vancouver 2010 Sustainability Report released today by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC). The report, which covers VANOC’s performance against its sustainability commitments between August 1, 2007 and July 31, 2008, is available online at vancouver2010.com.

(Editor's Note: Murray Cook joins Green Sports Venues as a regular columnist. As someone working daily in the field, Murray has a unique view of how sports facilities can be made more green. If you have any questions for him, send them to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .)

This feature is the first in a series that I hope will generate some feedback into how we can do a better job taking care of Mother Earth. We all live in the same world, and as sports-facility and athletic-field managers we have a responsibility to do our part in the fight to improve the planet we live in, by being friendlier to the environment. If you haven’t heard, Mother Nature is telling us that she’s sick of how we are treating her -- it’s time for everyone to step up to the plate!

Over the past couple of years I have been working with the Beijing Olympics and spending quite a bit of time in Asia. My travels took me there 17 times in that two-year span, and the question I was asked most often about the Olympics was: “How is the pollution over there?” My response changed between 8-08-2007 and 8-08-08. In the summer of 2007 I spent most of my time there preparing for the Baseball Test event at the Wukesong Sportplex. I actually saw the sun burn through the pollution about four times in the month of August. At the end of the day I would head to the hotel and literally wash black soot off of my face (never mind what was lodged in my nasal cavity.) The level of the pollution was alarming, but one year later the government had made vast changes to the way people lived and worked in Beijing, resultong in better air quality. For instance, a new policy instituted alternating days for personal car travel based on the odd/even numbers on license plates. The government also reduced factory construction by 30 percent and planted over a million trees throughout the sports venues.

It makes good environmental sense because the green roof will cut down energy consumption at the arena -- at a time when arena management is looking at higher evergy bills. It's also a great demonstration for the viability of the green roof in a large civic project: it will be the largest green roof in the state of Minnesota and the only one on an NBA arena.