Cambridge School Installs “Green” Synthetic Turf

The synthetic turf uses coconut shells and cork as infill material instead of rubber.

When the International School of Boston considered a synthetic turf for its sports fields, its green committee sought to find a natural infill material that would provide improved safety through reduced incidence of “burns” and injuries, while complying with an environmental resolution passed by the school board.

“We quickly concluded there was nothing currently being used in the U.S. that would meet that mandate,” explains Jonathan Austin, principal of Austin Architects, which developed the school’s master plan and designed the new play area in collaboration with Ray Dunetz Landscape Architecture.

The design team identified a new product and then conducted a rigorous review with the school’s green committee to ensure the product was the right fit for the school’s needs.

The artificial turf under scrutiny was manufactured by Limonta Sport in Italy and had been used there for almost a decade on professional soccer fields. This artificial turf, supplied stateside by New York-based Geo Safe Play, eschews rubber for coconut shells and cork as infill material. These natural materials allow rain to be absorbed, thus producing far less rainwater runoff.

The natural infill product costs about 10 percent more than a field made with rubber infill, but the International School of Boston decided it met their needs. It is the first site in the U.S. to install this artificial turf.

Domenic Carapella, managing director for Geo Safe Play, says the product is a lead-free synthetic turf. The “natural infill material retains humidity, contains no harmful metals or chemicals and adds no heat to the system,” he asserts.