Green Initiatives at Fenway Park

The Red Sox have made concerted efforts and invested several hundred million dollars over the past twenty years to preserve, protect and enhance Fenway Park. Central to that investment is sustainability, and in 2007, the club embarked on a five-year greening plan to make the iconic ballpark more eco-friendly. This initial project resulted in the first ballpark solar panel installation at a Major League Baseball park in 2008, and the implementation of the ballpark's Green Team, a first-of-its-kind recycling initiative that diverts almost 400 tons of recyclables from landfill annually. These initiatives continue today and over the past five years, the Red Sox have recycled more than 1,300 tons and composted 600 tons of waste.

As part of the club's ongoing commitment to climate consciousness, Fenway Park's carbon footprint has been reduced through environmentally forward construction features and initiatives, including Fenway Farms, a 5,000 square foot rooftop garden built in 2015 that pioneered what was possible within the walls of a century-old ballpark. Over 4,000 lbs. of produce and herbs are harvested at Fenway Farms each season, maintained by Green City Growers.

In 2023, a new, energy-efficient LED field lighting system was installed in Fenway Park's light towers as another step in the ongoing effort to make the ballpark a more sustainable venue. The LED system offers a 10- to 20-time longer product life than the previous lighting and is more eco-friendly with its energy conservation and CO2 emission reduction.

In many areas of the ballpark, new infrastructure has been put in place over the past 20 years for things that fans don't see but are nonetheless important; items like electrical vaults, mechanical systems, and chiller plants. While they lie beneath the surface and go largely unseen, these infrastructure improvements are critical to the ballpark's continued operation and vitality. In addition to upgrading the electrical and HVAC systems to ones that run more efficiently, enhanced irrigation systems have been installed for the field with timing controls to minimize water and fertilizer use.

Fenway Sports Group (FSG), the parent company of the Red Sox, is a Founding Circle member of the Green Operations and Advanced Leadership (GOAL) Sustainability Movement to champion social impact, climate action, and responsible change. FSG's commitment to sustainable practices can be seen throughout its properties, including the MGM Music Hall at Fenway, which opened in the summer of 2022 and was constructed with a commitment to sustainable design elements. The venue is a LEED® Gold certified venue under the USGBC's LEED v4 rating system. Among the numerous sustainable features, there are a total of 331 Hanwha 480-watt solar panels installed on the roof of the building. The solar panels are estimated to generate over 160,000 kilowatts of energy per year.

In addition to the MGM Music Hall, JetBlue Park in Southwest Florida, the Spring Training home of the Red Sox, is a LEED® certified building, given that designation by the U.S. Green Building Council and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI).

With an environmental commitment that has been upheld for over two decades, Fenway Park continues to be a model for what's achievable by integrating a century-old structure into the contemporary era of sustainability.