With the aim to continue to foster green building standards at FIFA World Cup™ stadiums, the 2018 Local Organising Committee (LOC) hosted a workshop to discuss current practices of green building standards application, best practices for innovative design solutions and aspects of stadium management and operation after certification. The event was attended by environmental protection experts, representatives of design organisations, developers as well as regional environmental authorities.

“Currently, an active work on stadium certification is underway,” said Milana Verkhunova, LOC Sustainability Director. “Nizhny Novgorod Stadium, Luzhniki Stadium, Volgograd Arena, Samara Arena and Mordovia Arena were certified at the stage of design. Spartak Stadium received the final BREEAM-in-use certificate with a ‘Good’ level at the end of 2016. Saint Petersburg Stadium, Luzhniki Stadium as well as Kazan Arena are currently in the process of final certification for construction."

Certification of the stadiums in compliance with recognised environmental standards is an integral element of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Sustainability Strategy. Apart from the globally recognised standards of environmental certification, the first Russian standard for green stadium certification “RUSO. THE FOOTBALL STADIUMS” has been developed specifically for the purpose of assessing and certifying World Cup stadiums.

This standard was created by the Russian syndicate of scientific, engineering and construction community of professional organisations with the support of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment of the Russian Federation and the LOC. It takes into account FIFA requirements, international standards, as well as the Russian legislative practice and construction regulations. Since the registration of the standard in March 2016, active work has been done to implement it as a tool to certify World Cup stadiums. Among venues that are planning to be certified by “RUSO. THE FOOTBALL STADIUMS” in the nearest future are Saint Petersburg Stadium and Kazan Arena.

Construction of sports facilities meeting green building standard requirements not only helps to minimise stadium environmental impact, but also to a great extent determines its operation in the future, including decreasing expenses for water and energy supply.

“The Spartak Stadium has successfully completed the certification process due to a substantial amount of energy efficient solutions implemented at the venue,” said Stadium Chief Operational Officer Ivan Yachmentsev. “For example, the stadium's unique building management system effectively regulates distribution of power to various utility systems, decreasing energy consumption by 20 to 70 per cent depending on a situation. LED-based lamps in service and office rooms and corridors allow saving up to 90 per cent of electric energy for lighting compared to incandescent lamps. We’ve also used a wide range of environmentally-friendly materials and implemented separate waste collection as part of the certification process.”

Green building standards are based on resource-efficient design and engineering solutions, including special methods of energy efficiency calculation and the provision of high-quality equipment for building, heating and cooling systems, lighting, power and water supplies. The standards also cover environmental safety of construction materials, a number of social aspects, transport accessibility, as well as general environmental factors, such as amenity planting, air quality and level of comfort.

In addition to resource-efficient technologies, stadiums are constructed in a way that enables them to preserve architectural heritage and biological diversity, ensure barrier-free environments for disabled people and people with limited mobility and to create comfortable public spaces.

For more details on the implementation of environmental, energy-and-resources-efficient design solutions for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia stadiums, please refer to the 2nd technical report on green certification of stadiums in Russia.