A Winning Strategy

Kristin Smith

While it may have been painful to watch my home team the Cleveland Browns lose to one of their biggest rivals on Sunday, Nov. 24, as someone who covers the waste-to-energy and recycling industry, there still was a reason to celebrate.

I am not sure yet whether it will be a winning season for the Browns, but one area where they are claiming victory is the way they are handling food waste at the stadium. The team’s initiative to divert food waste from FirstEnergy Stadium was introduced during the Browns/Steelers game. The thousands of fans at the game that were sporting orange and brown, or gold and black, may not have known they also were being green.

The Browns are the first professional franchise to implement the Grind2Energy system from garbage disposal giant InSinkErator. Instead of sending food waste to a landfill, the stadium is using the system to process this material into a slurry which is transported to an anaerobic digester at the Ohio State University’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster. Quasar energy group is capturing the biogas from the facility to make fuel and energy. Cleveland-based real estate developer Forest City Enterprises is also part of the partnership.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson remarked at the news, “Now fans can feel even more pride walking into FirstEnergy Stadium knowing that the Browns are taking huge strides toward our goal of being a green city on a blue lake.”

I know for myself that will truly be the case, and I think the awareness that such a visible presence like the Cleveland Browns can spread could certainly help inspire other institutions to follow suit.

Through this initiative, FirstEnergy Stadium is expected to divert 35 tons of food waste from landfills each season and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 28,000 pounds per year. The estimated energy and natural gas production from the biogas generated would be enough to power a single family home for a year and a half or enough natural gas to heat 32 homes for one month. When quasar President Mel Kurtz told attendees at the Renewable Energy from Waste Conference about the collaboration with the Cleveland Browns in mid-November, he emphasized that the alternative has to be better in order for it to make sense, and AD seems to be living up to that expectation from an economic, waste reduction and energy production standpoint.

The Cleveland Browns are front-runners in alternative energy and food waste reduction. So to all you Browns fans out there, whether our team wins or loses on the field, one thing is certain: they are leading the charge off the field.