Publication type: Conference other
Type of review: Peer review (abstract)
Title: Artificial versus natural turf sports fields : life cycle environmental impacts
Authors: Itten, René
Glauser, Lukas
Stucki, Matthias
et. al: No
Conference details: INUAS Conference 2022 "Urban Transformations: Public Spaces", Winterthur, Switzerland, 7-9 September 2022
Issue Date: 8-Sep-2022
Language: English
Subjects: Life Cycle Assessment; LCA; Turf; Sports field; Natural; Artificial; Environmental impact; Synthetic
Subject (DDC): 333.7: Land, natural recreational areas
Abstract: Introduction: Football is among the most popular sports globally. All that is needed for a football match is players, a ball and a sports field. However, the latter is not simply grass, but rather a precisely defined and constructed structure, which can be made of natural, hybrid or artificial turf. In cooperation with the sports field experts who build and maintain the sports fields in the city of Zurich, primary data for the entire life cycle of the turf sports fields was collected. Based on this data, life cycle inventories were compiled for (1) natural turf without drainage, (2) natural turf with drainage, (3) hybrid turf, (4) unfilled artificial turf and (5) filled artificial turf. The Life Cycle Inventory model includes the production and construction of the turf sports fields, as well as maintenance, renovation, dismantling and disposal. The functional unit of this study is defined as one hour of use of the respective artificial and natural sports field in the city of Zurich. Results: The LCA includes a selection of the indicators recommended by the Joint Research Council of the European Commission for the Organisational and Product Environmental Footprint 1. In the case of the natural turf sports fields, the construction and operation life cycle stages alone cause more than 80 % of the environmental impacts for all of the indicators analysed shown in Fig. 1. During operation, the environmental impact of natural and hybrid turf is significantly higher compared to artificial turf, especially for eutrophication, since the production of the required mineral fertiliser is energy-intensive and the emissions that result from its application have eutrophying effects. The environmental impacts of artificial turf sports fields are driven by the construction and renovation life cycle stages, which account for more than 65 % of the environmental impacts for all indicators shown in Fig. S.1. The renovation stage has higher impacts for artificial turf sports fields compared to natural turf sports fields, due to the additional material required to replace the artificial turf layer. The filled artificial turf sports field has the highest environmental impacts per hour of use for greenhouse gas emissions, freshwater eutrophication, mineral resource use as well as total primary energy demand and non- renewable primary energy demand, mainly due to the required filling material. The replacement as well as the disposal of the filling material causes additional impacts for the filled artificial turf sports fields in the renovation and operation life cycle stages. Conclusions: The most important factor for the environmental impact is the annual usage hours. Artificial and hybrid turf can be played on for much longer per year than natural grass. At optimal capacity utilisation, artificial turf sports fields have significantly lower environmental impacts per hour of use. However, the annual usage time not only depends on the turf type, but also on other factors like the existing infrastructure for lighting that allows for longer daily usage of the sports fields. The environmental impact of artificial and natural turf sports fields can be effectively reduced by optimising the annual usage hours of the existing fields. In general, intensively used pitches have significantly lower environmental impacts per hour of use than extensively used pitches. When planning new sports turf, the number of hours of use should be estimated as accurately as possible so that the optimum type of turf can be selected for the sports field. This means that for high intensity of use, artificial turf is more environmentally sustainable, and for less intensive use, a form of natural grass is. In general, the chosen sites should allow for the highest possible number of annual usage hours. References 1 Fazio, S. et al. (2018), Supporting information to the characterisation factors of recommended EF Life Cycle Impact Assessment method. 2 IPCC (2013), Climate Change 2013: The physical science basis. Contribution of working group I to the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. http://www.climatechange2013.org/images/ report/WG1AR5_ALL_FINAL.pdf. 3 Frischknecht, R. et al. (2007), Overview and Methodology. www.ecoinvent.org. 4 Rosenbaum, R. K. et al. (2011), USEtox - the UNEP-SETAC toxicity model: recommended characterisation factors for human toxicity and freshwater ecotoxicity in life cycle assessment. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 16, 710– 727.
URI: https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/25879
Fulltext version: Published version
License (according to publishing contract): Not specified
Departement: Life Sciences and Facility Management
Organisational Unit: Institute of Natural Resource Sciences (IUNR)
Published as part of the ZHAW project: Ökobilanzierung von Sportrasen der Stadt Zürich
Appears in collections:Publikationen Life Sciences und Facility Management

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Itten, R., Glauser, L., & Stucki, M. (2022, September 8). Artificial versus natural turf sports fields : life cycle environmental impacts. INUAS Conference 2022 “Urban Transformations: Public Spaces”, Winterthur, Switzerland, 7-9 September 2022.
Itten, R., Glauser, L. and Stucki, M. (2022) ‘Artificial versus natural turf sports fields : life cycle environmental impacts’, in INUAS Conference 2022 ‘Urban Transformations: Public Spaces’, Winterthur, Switzerland, 7-9 September 2022.
R. Itten, L. Glauser, and M. Stucki, “Artificial versus natural turf sports fields : life cycle environmental impacts,” in INUAS Conference 2022 “Urban Transformations: Public Spaces”, Winterthur, Switzerland, 7-9 September 2022, Sep. 2022.
ITTEN, René, Lukas GLAUSER und Matthias STUCKI, 2022. Artificial versus natural turf sports fields : life cycle environmental impacts. In: INUAS Conference 2022 „Urban Transformations: Public Spaces“, Winterthur, Switzerland, 7-9 September 2022. Conference presentation. 8 September 2022
Itten, René, Lukas Glauser, and Matthias Stucki. 2022. “Artificial versus Natural Turf Sports Fields : Life Cycle Environmental Impacts.” Conference presentation. In INUAS Conference 2022 “Urban Transformations: Public Spaces”, Winterthur, Switzerland, 7-9 September 2022.
Itten, René, et al. “Artificial versus Natural Turf Sports Fields : Life Cycle Environmental Impacts.” INUAS Conference 2022 “Urban Transformations: Public Spaces”, Winterthur, Switzerland, 7-9 September 2022, 2022.


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