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Venue development, advisory and investment company Oak View Group has rounded out the founding members circle for its GOAL sustainability platform, which now includes 25 venues and organisations from the world of sports and entertainment.
The eight new members are: AT&T Center, home of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs; Baltimore’s CFG Bank Arena; motorsport organisation Chip Ganassi Racing; Boston’s MGM Music Hall; Prudential Center, home of the NHL’s New Jersey Devils; Subaru Park, home of Major League Soccer team Philadelphia Union; Wrigley Field (pictured), home of Major League Baseball’s Chicago Cubs; and Xcel Energy Center, home of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild.
OVG launched GOAL in October as part of a collaboration with Fenway Sports Group, the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena. GOAL, which stands for Green Operations & Advanced Leadership, will provide venues with a tactical roadmap, easy-to-use tracking tools, a library of resources, and access to like-minded operators, vendors and sponsors.
The platform has been inspired by the work at OVG’s Climate Pledge Arena, the new home of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken and WNBA’s Seattle Storm which opened in 2021. The venue, which is sponsored by Amazon through its climate change campaign, is on track to be the world’s first carbon zero-certified arena.
The founding members included Climate Pledge Arena, Fenway Sports Group and State Farm Arena, as well as other OVG venues such as Acrisure Arena in California, Co-op Live in Manchester, and UBS Arena in Belmont Park, New York.
Later in October, a string of venues were added, including Budweiser Gardens (London, Ontario), Citi Field (New York), Footprint Center (Phoenix), FTX Arena (Miami), Gainbridge Fieldhouse (Indianapolis), Levi’s Stadium (Santa Clara), Moda Center (Portland), Moody Center (Austin), Mullett Arena (Tempe), PPG Paints Arena (Pittsburgh) and Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (Cleveland).
The latest additions complete the 25-strong line-up of GOAL founding members, which will each use the platform to chart a roadmap across 50-plus impactful environmental, social and governance objectives, crafted from a 12-month baseline of environmental metrics and an automatically calculated carbon footprint.
OVG said the objectives will detail a “tangible path” in environmental categories such as energy and GHG emissions, water efficiency and quality, and waste reduction. Social categories covered by the platform will include health and wellness, food and nutrition and diversity and inclusion, while governance categories will include ESG strategy and commitment, community resiliency, visitor engagement and education, and sustainable partnerships.
Founding members will have access to a data visualisation tool that allows them to filter and compare aggregated, anonymised data points from these venues against their own performance. The tool will enable members to understand their waste output or energy consumption per visitor, per type of event, and other industry-specific variables.
Chris Granger, president of OVG360, said: “OVG is proud to support this incredible connection of like-minded venues committed to immediate climate action.
“We sincerely appreciate their leadership and commitment to collaboration as we all look to chart a more sustainable path for the live entertainment and hospitality industries. We look forward to working with this group, and all venues, leagues, conferences, universities, and organisations committed to true sustainability and lasting social impact. We have no time to waste.”
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