“With the dramatic rise in boutique fitness studios over the past few years, gyms are beginning to offer longer hours and more luxury amenities, like spa-enhanced locker rooms, to compete,” Susana Cagle, senior manager, sustainability product management, of eco-consulting firm ENGIE Impact, tells mbg. “These extended hours and unique amenities result in higher energy bills and utility costs.” Lately, though, workout spaces that aren’t explicitly branded as eco-friendly have started cleaning up their act with equipment that allows gym-goers to help power the building as they burn calories. SportsArt, a popular player in the space that offers treadmills, bikes, and strength-training equipment that send electricity back to the grid, caters to international clients like Beach Fit in the United Kingdom and just started selling to hotel chains across the country like Marriott and Holiday Inn. According to one of their surveys, 63 percent of exercisers prefer to work out in gyms that offer eco-friendly equipment. Eco Gym, a new build in Rochester, New York, that stocks 21 pieces of eco-friendly cardio equipment, most of them spin bikes, has seen this consumer appeal firsthand. “The reaction of gym-goers has been very positive; they enjoy the immediate feedback of the user interface. Being able to see how many watts their workout generated is an added bonus,” the gym’s owner Mike Nolan tells mbg over email. “It offers visitors a highly visible and straightforward demonstration of renewable energy, and lets them participate in our sustainability goals.” At full capacity, Eco Gym estimates that these bikes can cover about 5 percent of the 9,000-square-foot building’s energy needs (another large portion of which comes from on-site wind turbines and solar panels). And as sustainability continues to become more important to the everyday consumer (85 percent of mbg readers are worried about the future of the planet, according to a poll conducted earlier this year), larger fitness chains are also beginning to dip their toes in greener waters. Both Planet Fitness, with 1,400 locations in the United States, and 24 Hour Fitness, a health club serving nearly 4 million members, have recently teamed up with ENGIE Impact to cut down on their footprints. “If a recycling bin or Dumpster is overflowing—or alternately, if haulers are picking up half-empty containers—the site manager calls our team to take action. The data we gather on-site about trash and recycling needs and container sizes allows us to establish the right sizing of pickup schedules, driving increased diversion from the landfill and ultimately more savings for the company,” Cagle explains of their program at 24 Hour Fitness. ENGIE also collects data to help gyms lower their electric burden by adjusting for cooler temps during peak hours and warmer ones during off times. “Gyms are more interested in sustainability today, both from a cost standpoint and from an emerging consumer demand,” Cagle says. “Millennial customers are even willing to pay a little more to join a gym that limits its carbon footprint. Gyms now have an opportunity to meet this demand, attract more consumers, and effectively manage energy usage.” Here’s hoping small boutique gyms, name-brand chains, and everyone in between continues to experiment with such eco-offerings, and a new, more mindful era of fitness is on the horizon. Stuck in a fitness rut? These 10 hacks will breathe new life into your routine. Emma received her B.A. in Environmental Science & Policy with a specialty in environmental communications from Duke University. In addition to penning over 1,000 mbg articles on topics from the water crisis in California to the rise of urban beekeeping, her work has appeared on Grist, Bloomberg News, Bustle, and Forbes. She’s spoken about the intersection of self-care and sustainability on podcasts and live events alongside environmental thought leaders like Marci Zaroff, Gay Browne, and Summer Rayne Oakes.
