LAS VEGAS—Allegiant Stadium—the 65,000-seat home of the Las Vegas Raiders that opened in 2020—recently teamed up with nZero, a near real-time carbon accounting and management platform that will provide 24/7 tracking and management of carbon emissions and water consumption data. The new partnership makes the Raiders one of the first professional sports teams in America to track their carbon emissions.
Through the new initiative, the stadium and team will both get detailed data that can help them develop more sustainable policies, implement decarbonization efforts, and use their influence to inspire climate action. “As we track greenhouse gas emissions via the nZero dashboard, we are establishing a baseline, which allows us to build a road map toward emission reductions,” Mike Taylor, director of public affairs for the Las Vegas Raiders, told BizBash. “The dashboard is an essential tool in tracking our emissions to deliver data points that can be used to make real-time decisions.”
To Taylor, focusing on their carbon footprint is essential to being good stewards of the environment and community. “The event industry has an expectation that the venue they are doing business with will be responsible when activating and supporting each client’s event. We take this responsibility very seriously,” he said.
His advice to other professionals in the event and sporting industries? Be vigilant in your approach to sustainability. “Continuing to be relevant and impactful requires forward thinking and anticipating the needs of your client and industry,” Taylor explained. “Talk to your clients in the initial planning stages about what their expectation is—you may find that you are already going above and beyond, or you could learn something from a client that allows your program to grow. Either way, clients are supported, and your venue is a leader in sustainability.”
To learn more about nZero—which also recently announced a partnership with the Las Vegas Convention Center—BizBash caught up with CEO Adam Kramer.
Tell us about nZero. Why is doing this type of real-time, 24/7 tracking so important?
nZero is a real-time carbon accounting and management platform that collects, analyzes, and produces the world’s most accurate emissions data to help customers accelerate their journey to net zero. You can’t manage what you don’t measure. With that strategic mindset as our guiding principle, we focus on capturing data at the highest granularity possible, providing 24/7 analysis of all scopes of emissions.
Traditionally, businesses have had to rely on outdated emissions averages to work toward meeting their climate goals. These outdated averages and insufficient data can lead to inaccurate reporting/disclosures that can ultimately harm businesses. nZero leverages a proprietary carbon data model to capture and automate all emission points at the highest granularity possible for accurate insights into scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. This 24/7 technology fills gaps in emissions data, helping clients understand changes hour by hour, and providing metrics that help them reach climate goals and reduce operational and capital costs. Using this technology, on average, we’re able to provide 30% more accurate data than the industry averages.
Can you describe the process of setting up this carbon emissions and water consumption tracking? How exactly does it work?
nZero assigns customers a success team to identify, connect, and sync all of their available emission sources, including utilities, to create a comprehensive view of their footprint. This enables automated imports of hourly, daily, or monthly usage activity into a customer’s dedicated nZero platform. nZero’s automated solutions help reduce staff time and eliminate human error, while providing customers the ability to see their actual, real-time impacts and gain automated decarbonization insights so they can reach net zero quickly and efficiently.
From your experience, what areas of an event or venue generate the most carbon emissions?
One surprising fact about carbon emissions from events is that one of the largest contributors doesn't actually occur at the event itself. Instead, it comes from the transportation to and from the venue by attendees, performers, vendors, and staff. The carbon emissions generated by personal vehicles, taxis, ride-shares, and air travel for long-distance events can be substantial.
Depending on the type of event, number of attendees, and waste management practices of the venue, waste generated from the event (including single-use items, event materials, and food waste) can also be a significant source of carbon emissions if they aren’t proactively managed.
In addition to Allegiant Stadium, what other types of businesses do you partner with in the event industry?
We partner with the world’s leading convention centers and service the hospitality and entertainment industry. Today, we support nearly 100,000 hotel rooms and more than 5 million square feet of convention center space. We have also partnered with sporting events such as the five-day cycling race Tour de Luxembourg to measure and report carbon emissions and provide decarbonization opportunities for future races.
Beyond the events and sporting industry, nZero serves NGOs, government agencies, and global organizations—and is the trusted platform for hard-to-abate industries.
What’s the No. 1 piece of advice you’d offer to event professionals who want to start reducing their carbon footprint?
Understanding your carbon impact is the first step in building a decarbonization plan. Twenty-four-seven data is critical in correctly calculating your baseline and understanding where the optimal interventions are, from an emissions and cost perspective, so you don’t waste precious time or money.
For example, we just helped a new customer that was about to go forward with a large rooftop solar project evaluate the efficacy of the project both from an environmental and financial standpoint. Our platform identified that a thermal heat pump would not only drive a 50% larger carbon avoidance, it also would produce a five-year faster payback period.
