Minnesota Twins Team Up with Pentair to Slash Water Use

The Minnesota Twins and Pentair Inc., working with sports sponsorship agency GreenMark, are installing a rainwater recycling system that’s custom-designed for Target Field and promises to reduce the new ballpark’s need for city water by more than half.

The Twins, Pentair, which is donating the system, and GreenMark announced the deal yesterday.

GreenMark, which specializes in environmental marketing and green sponsorship in sports, developed the multiyear, multimillion-dollar sponsorship that brands Pentair as “The Official Sustainable Water Provider” of the ball club and Target Field.

“The Minnesota Twins are proud to introduce a new environmental standard in sports that moves beyond waste and clean energy solutions to address water scarcity and quality, some of the most pressing environmental concerns of our time,” Twins President Dave St. Peter said in a statement announcing the project. 

“With Pentair’s cutting edge technology and GreenMark’s enlightened approach to sponsorship, we are excited to launch an entirely new category of sports sponsorship that is a win-win for the environment and sports franchises.”

The project partners say the system is expected to save more than 2 million gallons of water a year, which would reduce site’s draw from municipal sources by more than 50 percent.

That level of water savings is also expected to help the site achieve certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s standards for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

Pentair’s system is to capture rainwater that falls on the nearly 7-acre park (pictures of the cistern  are above and right); treat the harvested rainwater using the company’s filtration and pump technology; and then use the treated water to irrigate the field and wash the lower decks of the ballpark.

Pentair says the first-of-a-kind application of its system will purify the rainwater at Target Field so that it is as clean as, if not cleaner, than tap water that people drink.

The system is being installed and integrated into the waterworks of the new park, and the irrigation process has to be vetted before the system goes live. That’s expected to happen sometime during the inaugural season of Target Field, which becomes the Twins’ new home with the start of the season in April.

In addition to the rainwater harvesting, treatment and reuse system, Pentair is installing its Everpure tap water filtration systems Target Field suites, administrative offices and training rooms. The system is expected to enhance water quality and reduce the use bottled drinking water.

Images courtesy of the Minnesota Twins, Pentair and GreenMark.