Don Collier
Eco-Products® announced today that they are an Official Zero Waste Partner of the San Francisco Giants. The partnership will feature compostable foodservice packaging from Eco-Products within Oracle Park to support the organization’s composting program and overall waste diversion efforts.
The Eco-Products approach is systems-driven and designed to promote collaboration between venue operations, foodservice stakeholders, waste haulers and composters — all in the effort to minimize contamination from non-compostable products.
“We’ve admired the waste diversion program at Oracle Park for a long time,” said Wendell Simonson, Director of Marketing for Eco-Products. “Getting the opportunity to help the Giants use compostable packaging to keep food waste out of landfills is a milestone achievement and one that we could not be more excited about.”
“Our partnership with Eco-Products represents an important step forward in our ongoing efforts to operate Oracle Park as one of the most sustainable venues in sports,” said Alfonso Felder, Chief Operations and Experience Officer at the San Francisco Giants. “By incorporating compostable foodservice products throughout Oracle Park, we are significantly reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills and enhancing the fan experience.”
“We look forward to working with Eco-Products in supporting Oracle Park's waste diversion program,” said Rafe Gabel, Senior General Manager for Diamond 58 presented by Aramark Sports + Entertainment. “As the official hospitality provider at Oracle Park, we are committed to enhancing the food and beverage experience while integrating sustainable practices. By incorporating compostable foodservice packaging, we are taking significant steps to reduce waste and contribute to a more sustainable future for Giants fans and the San Francisco community.”
The San Francisco Giants have a longstanding commitment to sustainability and remain a leader in environmental stewardship.
Oracle Park was the first major league ballpark to receive U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) platinum (2019), gold (2015) and silver (2010) certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Existing Buildings, Operations and Maintenance (EBOM) and is the only ballpark in the country to have earned all three.
The club received LEED Certification for its concerted efforts to conserve power and water, recycle waste and implement the use of renewable energy sources and programs. In 2024, the club received the inaugural MLB Eco-Slugger Innovation Award for sustainable field management practices and was awarded their latest LEED Certification — successfully maintaining Platinum status.
The Giants have earned a total of 13 Green Glove Awards since the award’s inception in 2008, the most recent in 2022 — all while drastically increasing their waste diversion numbers from 57 percent in 2009 to 97 percent in 2022. The MLB award is given out annually to one team who leads the league in recycling and general green initiatives and programming.
Through a robust composting program, the Giants have achieved waste diversion rates of more than 90 percent. Thanks to a partnership with Recology, the Giants send food waste and certified compostable packaging from Oracle Park to composting instead of landfills — a critical lever in the broader effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2019, the Giants won the Green Sports Alliance’s Environmental Innovator of the Year Award, given to organizations for their tremendous work in sports and sustainability. Innovators of the Year embody the sports greening movement across their organization and operations by implementing projects that reduce environmental impact and encourage fans, athletes and community stakeholders to do the same.
Eco-Products has a long history of working with ballparks, stadiums, venues, ski resorts and others to achieve waste diversion success through the use of compostable packaging in front-of-house collection programs. They advocate for a systems approach to contamination mitigation embodied in the “CIRC” Program — a set of open-sourced tools designed to help the foodservice industry keep non-compostables out of organics streams.