New York Red Bulls names Covanta official energy partner

Major League Soccer (MLS) team New York Red Bulls, Harrison, New Jersey, has announced an official partnership with Covanta, Morristown, New Jersey. The agreement designates Covanta as the official energy partner of the New York Red Bulls. Covanta is providing renewable energy to power Red Bull Arena from its energy-from-waste (EFW) facility in Newark, New Jersey.

Covanta’s EFW facility uses postrecycled waste from municipalities and businesses to generate electricity.

“We are proud to be named the official energy partner of the New York Red Bulls,” Sami Kabbani, Covanta’s senior vice president of energy, says. “With less than two miles separating Covanta’s energy-from-waste facility in Newark, New Jersey, from Red Bull Arena in Harrison, the partnership takes advantage of locally produced renewable energy that directly benefits the surrounding community and also continues to keep trash out of landfills.”

Through this partnership, the Red Bulls will save 5,000 tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the carbon sequestered annually by a forest the size of over six New York City Central Parks, Covanta says. In addition, Covanta says its electricity has a greenhouse gas reduction of 9,500 tons by keeping waste of out of landfills, the same savings achieved by pulling 1,800 cars off the road.

Visitors to Red Bull Arena can also learn the importance of more sustainable waste management including recycling, composting and energy recovery through the partnership. Covanta and the Red Bulls will tell the story through LED displays and videos, branded waste and recycling receptacles and fan-participation activities outside of the arena on match days.

"Our club is thrilled to partner with Covanta, an environmentally conscious and socially aware company that also happens to be our neighbor here in northern New Jersey," Marc de Grandpre, general manager of the New York Red Bulls, says. "With this partnership, Red Bull Arena will now be powered by 100 percent renewable energy."