After all, colleges and universities have always been at the forefront of social change, participating in green initiatives that will attract students to their institutions. One trend that has gained a lot of traction through the years is becoming more eco-friendly, and many schools have adopted sustainable initiatives.
However, going green involves more than adding a bike-share program, recycling program and water friendly toilets to campus-it’s finding solutions that go full circle to not only help the environment, but to save the school money at the same time. One way to accomplish this is through installing eco-friendly gym equipment into fitness facilities-sustainable machines can help a building generate its own power, which in the end helps to offset electrical costs.
Eco-Friendly Gym Equipment
Eco-friendly gym equipment looks the same as normal equipment-recumbent bikes, treadmills, ellipticals, etc. but has an added benefit. If you’re buying new machines, why not purchase equipment that is sustainable and saves your facility money? The companies that make this equipment follow sustainable guidelines such as using energy efficient lighting and water conservation systems. Often-times, the cardboard and paper that come with the packaging are also reused and recycled.
Harnessing Human Energy
The equipment works by harnessing human energy to convert the power created through the workout into utility grade electricity. Inside the equipment is a micro-inverter that works just like a solar panel or wind turbine, capturing up to 74 percent of the workout’s energy. All you have to do is the plug the equipment into a standard power outlet. One hour on an elliptical can generate up to 250 watts of electricity, significantly offsetting power consumption.
A Different Way to Workout
Most of the time when a student heads to the gym to workout, they’re focused on the basics: how many calories they will burn, how many miles they will run, and what their average heart rate will be. Using gym equipment that is sustainable and gives back to the environment gives students another goal to achieve during their workout-how much power will they generate and how many watts will they give back to the environment. This mindset gives them another way to look at their workout and enjoy the gym.
Beyond the Obvious Benefits
Besides the obvious benefit of getting in a good workout on a quality machine, eco-friendly gym equipment offers un-paralleled cost savings. Used in the right setting, (a university gym with hundreds, if not thousands of students, filtering in and out daily, using the equipment) savings can go up into the thousands, over the course of a year. Imagine saving thousands on your electric bill just by changing the way in which people workout.
For example, 14 eco-friendly cycles can produce 2,621 kilowatts of electricity, which is equal to 1.8 metric tons of CO2 saved. If that doesn’t sound like much, think again- that amount of CO2 saved is equal to 4,144 miles driven, 1,890 pounds of coal burned or 1.7 million acres of forest.
Eco-friendly gym equipment gives each workout a meaning beyond calories and fat burned. You can even use a convertor from our site to see how much your facility has the potential to save.
How Else Can You Make Your Facility Greener?
Replacing gym equipment isn’t the only way to make your gym “green.” There are a multitude of eco-friendly products you can choose to make a difference, such as wall paint and cleaning supplies. Green cleaning products offer a lot of benefits compared to their chemical-filled competitors, such as a purer environment with better air quality due to reduced fumes.
Many so-called normal cleaning products release harmful chemicals when they are being used and often come in harmful packaging, while green products often come in recyclable bottles and packages.
Incorporating eco-friendly paints provides a fresh look with no harmful chemicals, odors or solvents. Simple solutions such as putting out recycling bins, incorporating LED energy efficient light bulbs or offering free and/or discounted reusable water bottles can also give your gym an added benefit when it comes to being sustainable.
