There was a time when Michael Sciortino did not prioritize environmental sustainability as he established his career in arena operations.
It certainly was not a priority during his time at Madison Square Garden, and why would it be?
“Many venues across the country do not focus on this because it’s hard,” Sciortino told amNewYork. “We consume a lot of electricity, and we have lots of cars that come to our venue.”
It was not until he joined the Golden State Warriors and helped open up their current home, Chase Center, in San Francisco, that everything fell into place.
“It’s required by law to do all of these things just to build a new building and operate that building,” Sciortino said. “They take it very, very seriously. It kind of opened my eyes to the things we can do and the things that are possible with time and investment and, quite frankly, with people who care.”
With those lessons in tow, Sciortino returned home to New York to help with the opening of UBS Arena at Belmont Park, the home of the NHL’s New York Islanders, where he became the building’s senior vice president and general manager.
In its first four years, the venue has become a model of sustainability on the East Coast, with Sciortino spearheading its efforts.
UBS Arena has already achieved carbon neutrality for all scope 1 and 2 emissions from operations two years ahead of schedule.
The refurbishing and reopening of the UBS Arena-Elmont Long Island Rail Road station have removed over 392,000 cars from the road. The building’s use of low-flow plumbing has reduced water consumption by 40%, which is standard for buildings of its size.
In May 2024, UBS Arena was awarded Silver certification under the Total Resource Use and Efficiency (TRUE) rating system, which helps facilities measure, improve, and recognize zero-waste performance. Since then, the building has diverted 642 tons of waste and maintained a 94% diversion rate.
The arena has also been able to donate 6,043 pounds of unused food, which has provided approximately 5,000 meals for local families.
His efforts earned him the Billie Eilish Award for Sustainability at the 2025 Pollstar Awards, which was held last month. Eilish, the mega music star, has been a vocal advocate for sustainable practices.
“It’s a huge honor,” Sciortino said. “I was very excited. I think we do a lot at UBS Arena, and I say we because although this is an individual award, this is very, very, very much a we. We have a very large team of people here who work on all different things from a sustainability standpoint for an arena like ours… We have a big voice, and we have lots of people who listen to us. They come to our building, and we have social media channels and all these other things we can do, and things like this Billie Eilish award are just opportunities to sort of scream it from the mountaintops that this is important.”
Sciortino also leads UBS Arena’s sustainability program, Sustainable Brilliance, Community Resilience, which includes facilitating a monthly sustainability committee, bringing various business stakeholders from across UBS Arena and the New York Islanders together to continue their sustainability efforts.
During April, which is Earth Month, arena and JetBlue employees cleaned the waterfront and planted dune grass at Point Lookout Town Park. Volunteers worked with the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society and learned about their conservation work on Long Island.
UBS Arena also hosted a sustainability conference that invited local politicians and business leaders to foster conversation about sustainability as a whole.
“It shows that if we can do it, you can do it in your home, or you can do it with your business, because it’s a bit of an uphill battle with venues like ours,” Sciortino said. “But on the flip side of that is, to the extent that we consume a lot of everything, if we also make small improvements or incremental improvements, that makes a very big difference.”
