Recent studies by the Institute for Energy Research confirmed what many Americans’ wallets have been feeling for a while: energy prices are increasing.
A December 2025 study found that energy prices increased 27% from January 2021 to January 2025. And last year, the national average cost of electricity was 13.54 cents per kilowatt hour, an increase of nearly .40 cents per kilowatt hour from 2021.
While rising energy prices affect all sectors, the athletics, fitness and recreation industries may feel the weight of their utility bills a bit more. Running massive facilities with energy-consuming exercise machines, pool filters, refrigeration units, lighting and heating, all add up to higher energy costs.
Given the trend of rising prices and the uncertain future of natural resources, it is no surprise that architects are witnessing clients become increasingly interested in going beyond the baseline recommendations for sustainability. Green design may improve operating budgets, as well as signal organizational values to staff and members. On top of these considerations, today’s architects know that aesthetically pleasing designs are often a vehicle to lowering energy costs.
Athletic Business caught up with two such architects who offered insights as to where sustainability fits into the landscape of facility design in 2026 and beyond.
Balancing climate, design
At OLC, the sustainability conversation starts with understanding what nature provides at a specific site.
“We use that to illuminate and delight,” says Bob McDonald, OLC’s senior principal and co-CEO.
These initial considerations could range from daylighting and strategic building orientation to evaluating what on-site power generation could be the most viable — solar, wind, geothermal.
For Kahler Slater, every project begins with baseline low- or no-cost sustainability considerations that will deliver a return on investment. These include reusable heat from mechanical systems, energy-conscious fitness equipment and strategic window glazing.
“Reusable heat from mechanical systems can be recovered and diverted to heat swimming pools or other areas that need to be warmed for comfort,” says Adam Bastjan, design principal at Kahler Slater, adding that HVAC solutions, as well as dedicated outdoor air systems, can be beneficial for controlling humidity and air quality at a facility.
Even the facility’s exterior can play a role in the beginning stages of sustainability planning.
“Another simple yet effective thing we do that is very powerful at reducing the carbon footprint of a building is to provide shade in the parking areas,” says McDonald. “Reducing water consumption with bioswales and native trees, providing light colors and white roofing on the outside of the building also helps to reduce the heat island effect, which contributes to climate warming.”
Both McDonald and Bastjan easily identified projects that put sustainability at the forefront of their design goals. Bastjan and his team at Kahler Slater point to the Bakke Recreation & Wellbeing Center at the University of Wisconsin
“From the start, the project was guided by the American Institute of Architects’ Framework for Design Excellence, which brings together 10 strategies to support sustainability in a more holistic way to balance climate, resilience, equity and wellbeing,” Bastjan explains.
The four-level, 270,000-square-foot fitness facility includes a jogging track, multiple outdoor terraces, a wellness suite, basketball courts, a 25-yard pool and an ice sheet. Says Bastjan, “Together, these elements make sustainability a lived experience, helping keep the campus community engaged, supported and connected for years to come.”
For McDonald and OLC, an exemplary sustainable project is the Arvada Aquatics Center (AAC) in Arvada, Colo. Arvada features a 50-meter competitive pool and a five-lane auxiliary pool for recreational use.
“The facility turned out to be welcoming, lively, and a joy to use, while also quietly achieving LEED Silver certification,” McDonald says. “This definitely showed a commitment by the owner, operator, design team and contractor to deliver a truly sustainable project for the citizens of Arvada.”
Achieving certifications such as LEED Silver can be difficult in any facility, but qualifying metrics are particularly challenging in an aquatics facility where energy-sucking filters, large amounts of water, and constant heating result in higher energy usage.
“We focus on regenerative-media filters to save on water, heat and chemicals, variable-frequency drives on pumps to reduce energy spikes on start-up and to fine-tune the flow, energy-efficient natural gas boilers that are positioned to be swapped out with electrical boilers in the future,” says McDonald. “Also, the sanitation systems — ultraviolet light and salt-chlorine generation — will boost a project’s sustainability.”
Arvada also was designed with the future in mind, as McDonald notes that the roof structure was specified to accept the future load of solar arrays, and conduit is in place for all of the power runs they’ll need.
While Arvada did not meet net-zero energy or net-zero carbon strategies that were initially considered, McDonald and his team have an eye on those designations for future projects.
Photo courtesy of OLC
Carbon neutrality
Designers and facility stakeholders weigh the pros and cons of implementing a variety of sustainable solutions, but one phrase may seem to hover above the rest, overshadowing simple considerations, it’s true meaning often misunderstood: carbon neutrality.
“A carbon-neutral building is very difficult to achieve,” McDonald says.
Carbon neutrality, also known as “net-zero emissions,” refers to an equal balance in the carbon dioxide emitted from a facility and the carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere. It is different than zero emissions, which implies that no carbon is emitted in the first place. Carbon dioxide can also be counterbalanced through carbon offsets, such as investments in environmental projects.
Ruben Mejia, executive vice president of fitness equipment manufacturer SportsArt, takes carbon neutrality and zero emissions very seriously, as the company recently certified its G660 treadmill as carbon negative.
“We know how much electricity you have to generate in order for that treadmill to be carbon neutral, and in a fully commercial gym or fitness center that time is a little under five years,” says Mejia. “For the remainder of that machine’s lifetime, it is going to be carbon negative. You’re doing even better for the environment.”
“I strongly believe that designing for carbon neutrality, or at least meaningful carbon reduction, isn’t a passing trend, and it will remain a key goal moving forward,” says Bastjan. “When carbon reduction is balanced with other sustainable strategies, it supports a more holistic and impactful approach to design overall.”
McDonald adds that while carbon neutrality can be a motivating goal, there can be financial or logistical barriers that dissuade clients from pursuing the designation. “I view it as more of a theoretical goal or concept that can be used to guide the design process, certainly something to strive for,” he says. “But ultimately, we as architects have to be realistic about what is affordable and achievable now for our clients.”
Regardless of feasibility, both McDonald and Bastijan agree that a carbon-neutral facility is a “gold standard” in sustainable building design.
Photo courtesy of Kahler Slater
Initial investment vs. ROI
Stakeholders planning new facilities or renovations of existing gyms, rec centers and stadiums will often cite rising costs as holding them back from embracing sustainability solutions. That isn’t an assumption. It is an obstacle that Bastjan and McDonald confront on projects time and time again.
“Costs are definitely a factor in each and every decision that’s made,” says McDonald.
Adds Bastjan, “Cost is still a top priority for our clients when it comes to sustainable features. While there’s a strong emphasis on low or no-cost strategies, many clients are also taking a closer look at return on investment. When a system offers a reasonable payback period, it’s much easier to justify the upfront cost.”
Sustainable building strategies that offer a robust ROI are often the same ones that require the steepest initial investment. While it is easy for facilities to implement low-cost items such as LED lighting fixtures or approve designs that focus on strategic daylighting strategies, it is harder to sell stakeholders on strategies such as on-site power generation, which has a big environmental impact and an equally large initial capital investment requirement.
“When you enter into the realm of on-site power generation, the initial capital investment needed to even dip a toe in the water is significant,” McDonald says. “A full-blown net-zero-energy or net-zero-carbon facility quickly becomes out of reach for most clients.”
But the high cost doesn’t deter everyone. Despite being considered “out of reach” for budget-conscious projects for many years, McDonald and Bastjan view these high-level sustainable solutions as achievable for projects of all scopes, because they know sustainability is not a passing trend. Carbon-neutral design will be prevalent for decades to come.
“That is why it is so important to plan for the future,” McDonald says. “Make sure that the space, conduit, infrastructure and other items are in place in the initial design so that these improvements can be added seamlessly in the future.”
As sustainable design considerations become less expensive, and more widely accepted as a baseline consideration, facility operators, project stakeholders and architects can all expect sustainability to be a permanent fixture of the building and design conversation.
While on-site power generation, carbon neutrality and recycled materials have dominated sustainability discussion to varying degrees thus far, McDonald forecasts a new player entering the future of sustainable design considerations.
“The wave of electrification is definitely on the horizon,” he says. “The buildings being designed today, if designed sustainably, will be in use when the earth’s proven natural gas resources are either too expensive to extract or have been depleted. That means that between now and then, at some point, the existing gas-fired equipment will have to be replaced by something most likely powered by electricity. This makes the concept of installing heat-pumps powered by solar or wind a very compelling idea.”
A move away from natural gasses toward electricity and other reusable energy sources signals that sustainability in athletics, fitness and recreation design is now the norm.
“Sustainability has for years been labeled as something that is out of reach for most projects,” says McDonald. “That has changed, and now it is something that is achievable for even the most budget-conscious projects.”
Photo courtesy of Kahler Slater
A Miniature Power Plant
In addition to design and building systems, the equipment that a fitness center or campus recreation facility uses can also impact sustainability.
“Energy-conscious fitness equipment can help significantly reduce energy usage,” says Adam Bastjan, design principal at Kahler Slater. “While not necessarily a facility design consideration, we like to offer our clients a variety of options and strategies to find ways to reduce their carbon footprint.”
Energy-conscious fitness equipment is what SportsArt is all about. The fitness equipment company has been dedicated to creating electricity-generating machines since 2010 with its Eco Power technology.
“If you’re on a regular bike, and you’re pedaling, you are actually creating energy. But there’s nowhere for that energy to go, so it just dissipates as heat when you pedal,” explains Ruben Mejia, executive vice president of SportsArt. “With our bikes, when you’re pedaling, that motion turns a belt that spins a generator and that generator creates electricity. Then the electricity is funneled through our patented technology that converts it into a format that is automatically accepted by the outlet. You’ve basically got a mini power plant.”
SportsArt offers treadmills, stationary bikes and rowing machines with Eco Power Technology, and the equipment can be found in campus rec centers across the country.
Mejia credits today’s student population, with their preference for sustainable products and services, as a significant contributing factor to the rise in both sustainable design considerations and sustainable fitness equipment.
“It doesn’t matter what your beliefs are. Some people have a huge interest in sustainability and some people don’t,” says Mejia. “You don’t have to believe in the messaging, but the students care.”
Fitness centers and campus recreation facilities that use sustainable fitness equipment can power their lighting, televisions and even HVAC equipment with the machines. This collaborative innovation is exactly where Bastjan sees the future of sustainability.
“It’s about creating buildings that perform well as a whole,” he says, “rather than optimizing individual systems in isolation.”
