Lumen Field holistic sustainability

Article posted by Coliseum, March 31^st, 2026

Image: Coliseum GSVA

Christy Biggs says that though she does not have any background in sustainability and boasts a sports background but, in 2018, when she was asked to take over the sustainability program of the Lumen Field in Seattle, US, she “jumped in two feet as she does not like to do anything halfway and the rest is history”.

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Christy Briggs is the Logistics and Sustainability Manager for Lumen Field and the National Football League (NFL) team Seattle Seahawks. Briggs has been with the venue since 2013 and has been focused on sustainability since 2018. In her role, Briggs oversees the stadium and the practice facility’s overall sustainability strategy and initiatives including its waste, recycling and composting programs.

In an exclusive interaction with Coliseum, Christy Biggs, Sustainability Manager, Lumen Field, US, talks about the trash program of the venue and affirms that the 23-year-old Lumen Field does have a rich history of sustainability and “we host multiple concerts every year as well as multiple events. We have about 300 events every year and that includes an attached Events Center with over 50 concerts throughout the year. That amount of activity obviously brings a lot of trash and our sustainability program is very holistic. We do have a history of zero waste even before zero waste and zero waste verifications were a buzzword within our industry.”

Lumen Field

The Lumen Field is a multipurpose stadium in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the home field for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL), the Seattle Sounders FC of the Major League Soccer (MLS) and the Seattle Reign FC of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). It has a capacity to hold 68,740 spectators for the NFL games and 37,722 supporters for most MLS matches. It will be a host site for the 2026 FIFA World Cup™.

Commented Christy Biggs, “We started tracking in 2006 and at the time we were diverting four percent of our waste strictly to recycling. In 2016, we hit into that zero waste mark which is anything above 90 percent. We were very consistent across the board and then we took a dip. It started around COVID and a lot of it can be attributed to COVID.”

Challenges

“Some of our challenges were an increase in events and in 2019 we had numerous back-to-back soccer, MLS soccer to Seahawks and Seahawks to Sounders events which caused compressed timeline. With COVID we saw supply chain issue and being able to get our compostable cups and different things like that and make it available. We saw breakdowns with our vendors and then staffing became an issue.”

Solutions

Biggs narrated that they invested in machines called Murphy and sorted everything onsite and went with two streams – “In our building 98 percent of what you buy is going to be recyclable or compostable so, having another can and another bag that has to be opened for two percent of the waste wasn’t a smart choice. The second is our can selection and our recycle bins have a circle in the opening and what that did is it eliminated the ability for our compostable which is the most confusing piece in our system to go in the recycling because they are compostable. So, we don’t have to sort those bags. They come directly out of those cans and into our recycle and we do not have a contamination issue. So, now we are only sorting one stream.”

“The second system is we want our fans to leave their stuff in the seat and you can see after a game and our staff picking up stuff from the Bowl. No matter what someone is going to leave we have to pick it up. It is so much easier to pick it up and sort it into the right streams and in that process as we brought in the Murphy we realized we were touching that waste multiple times earlier and now we don’t. It goes straight into the recycling and our sorters never touch it.”

Lessons Learned

“The biggest lesson I have learnt is that zero waste is a continuous improvement process. The things are changing. Reuse is becoming a big buzzword within sustainability and being ready and add that into your program. We are also always going to go back and those challenges may come up again, the supply chain and all of those things.”

“The second lesson I learnt is partnerships are key. So, both my waste holder and the waste holders are our proper partners and they are also just our partners and they are always problem-solving for us. We pay them but they are also very engaged in our process and I think that is super important if you are going to keep a diversion program running well.”

Closing Thoughts

Christy Biggs concluded by averring, “Zero waste is very much a team effort. It’s not just the housekeeping team, it’s not just the sustainability team, it is our event operations, it is our field crew, it is our proper partners, and our marketing team and we all play a part in making sure that we are a zero waste building.”

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