Sport Management Alum Champions Green Arenas

January 12, 2012

As chief operating officer of AEG Facilities, Bob Newman '87 M.S., a graduate of the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management, drives the integration of sustainable practices at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and at dozens of other arenas worldwide.  According to Newman, every AEG facility is a mini ecosystem with its own environmental footprint.

Through AEG's 1 Earth project, launched in November 2010, each AEG arena is implementing practices to meet the company's rigorous targets in energy and climate, recycling and waste diversion, sustainable purchasing, and education of employees, partners and guests.

With Newman in the operations driver's seat at AEG Facilities, goals for the year 2020 include a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, 15% of electricity usage from renewable resources, and 20% reduction in water-use intensity. AEG and Newman hope that commitment to those targets will reduce its own footprint and help its industry to identify opportunities that merge economic growth with environmental responsibility.

For AEG, that footprint is substantial. The firm owns, operates, or provides consulting services for over 100 venues on five continents.  "1 Earth embodies the hallmarks of AEG's innovation culture: centralized best practices combined with the insights of every employee on the ground," he emphasizes.

That means that every AMG Facilities employee-from Newman on down-will take personal responsibility for being more environmentally responsible. "Innovation is our lifeblood, the cornerstone of our culture," emphasizes Newman. "We may be increasingly big, increasingly global, but we encourage everybody in the firm to be entrepreneurial-to look for ways of doing things more effectively and of exploring innovative, new opportunities." That, he says, includes ideas big and small-like creating entertainment districts that can keep patrons occupied around the clock and   finding greener, more efficient ways to improve services and systems in AEG's arenas and other facilities.