World Cup Stadium to Feature Green Design

 There’s hasn’t been an abundance of sustainability coverage for the upcoming FIFA World Cup South Africa. Perhaps the excitement around the first-ever hosting of the World Cup on African soil has monopolized the media coverage; or perhaps there just isn’t a lot of sustainability initiatives to report on.
Regardless of the reason, we did find it worthy to highlight a few programs, most notably the design of the newly-built Durban stadium.
Construction of the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban was completed in 2009 and is set to host  70,000 spectators for one of the semi-final matches and numerous group matches.
The design called for a “state-of-the-art landmark sports facility with excellent amenities and a sustainable recreational and multi-disciplinary sporting venue.”
The stadium is stunning in design. Its most notable feature is a large 150-meter arch rising high above the stadium center. A SkyCar funicular system transports visitors to a Skydeck, allowing a birds’ eye view of the stadium, city and nearby coast.
Though large scale event-driven construction is always heavy on resource use, the builders of the Durban stadium minimized construction and demolition impact by utilizing recycled materials from the old stadium. More than 30,000 cubic meters of concrete demolition material from the old stadium was used for construction of the new stadium.

The PTFE-coated roof membrane allows 50 percent of sunlight to filter through while protecting the stadium from glare and rain. The stadium also features a rainwater collection system, water-saving installations, energy-efficient heating and cooling systems and natural ventilation design.
When the World Cup comes to a close mid-July and South Africans find themselves in a sort of post World Cup hangover, the ten beautiful stadiums spanning the country, five new and five updated, will still be standing. The Durban stadium, among others, was built to Olympic standards in the hopes of hosting a future Olympic Games in South Africa.

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Gucci Goes Green

 Gucci is going green. The Italian luxury brand has announced that it is going to make a few green changes, including redesigning their packing to be eco-friendly, using 100 percent recyclable FSC Certified paper.
The Italian label will now forgo the usual plastic laminate surfaces found in their tissue paper, bags and boxes. The ribbon and garment bags have been switched to cotton from the original polyester material.
They will be packing their shoes in one flannel instead of two. They will also give out gift boxes only when requested.
Also, Gucci is replacing all of its mannequins with a new version, designed by Frida Giannini, which is made with shockproof polystyrene and finished with water-based paints.
Creative director Frida Giannini was quoted by vogue.co.uk as saying, "This project proves hat you sacrifice nothing creatively when working with environmentally friendly materials."
"The new packaging is very beautiful and evokes perfectly the combination of Gucci's values and the traditions for which is has become renowned since Guccio Gucci founded the company in Florence nearly 90 years ago."
"I believe we have a collective responsibility towards future generations to minimize our impact on the environment."
The initiative will be introduced in all of its 284 stores starting this month.

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