Life At Levy

By Mary McCarthy, Vice President of Sustainability at Levy

I’ve been a nature person and a science nerd for as long as I can remember. It just made sense for me to study ecology and evolutionary biology in school. I was in the midwest and it became apparent to me that the beautiful parts of nature that I loved so much were being significantly impacted by the food and agriculture systems. Since then, I have been passionate about finding ways to shift the food system to a force for good.

To celebrate Stop Food Waste Day and Earth Day 2024, I want to highlight some of the solutions and initiatives we’ve been focused on lately. This year, we’ve seen a big pickup in the desire for reusables and lessening single-use plastics, and we continue to emphasize improving the sustainable experience at events for guests. But I want to start with something that’s top of mind for everyone in entertainment: food waste.

Food Waste

When it comes to sustainability, my top priority is embedding it in the entire company’s day-to-day thinking, and this is especially true with food waste. I want it to be an accessible and approachable topic for team members at every single venue, and not something that needs to come from top-down. Since last year’s Stop Food Waste Day, we have continued improving our food donation programs and identifying local composters in our cities.

Composting is an incredibly tangible, actionable and impactful way to divert waste from landfill and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but at the scale of a football game with 40,000 guests it can be difficult to ensure the compost bins aren’t contaminated with other materials. So, many of our venues have kickstarted back-of-house composting programs, allowing them to have complete control over where the food scraps in their kitchens go. We’re seeing these programs implemented in venues across the country, not just urban hubs — Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, The University of Missouri and the Daytona 500, to name a few. Martinsville Speedway started a program on their own, completely thanks to one Levy team member that was inspired to cut down on their waste. These back-of-house programs build the confidence of our team members, partners and composters to expand composting venue-wide.

At big venues and events, food waste isn’t the only concern. Our partners and team members have been excited about the opportunity to incorporate more reusable and recycled vessels into their venue.

Reducing Single Use Plastics

We get to work with a lot of innovative problem-solvers and see solutions for waste being created in real time. Reusable vessels have become a popular choice at many of our venues, with others finding answers in composted or recycled disposables. The number one ask we get from leaders is to make these more sustainable vessels customizable. In the entertainment space, an incredible guest experience is the first priority, which means finding a wider variety of beautiful, customized vessels. At the moment, we’re working with manufacturers to improve our ability to match the quality, convenience and customization of single-use plastics. 

What does the future look like?

There is no finish line for sustainability, including with food waste and single-use plastics. What I’m continuing to prioritize moving forward is raising sustainability awareness for location leaders and transitioning it from something people think about some of the time to something that is ingrained in every operational decision we make. Observances like Stop Food Waste Day are great moments to celebrate something that should be happening every day. The environment is completely intertwined with social justice issues, and we have to consider this in how we impact our local communities. As a company with a significant presence in major cities, we have a responsibility to support folks developing solutions for their communities like composters and local BIPOC farmers. We’ve built the foundation of our sustainability program on driving impact paired with this message of education and awareness. We are looking toward a future where sustainability always adds to a guest’s experience at an event — never detracts. For me, instilling a sense of hope and optimism about sustainability into our venues means guests leave inspired to make a difference in their own life, knowing a little bit more about it than they did a few hours before. People are ready for change, and I see that reflected every time we launch a new initiative. I am filled with anticipation for what the rest of 2024 and the future of entertainment look like with sustainability as a core tenet.