The Greenest Professional Sports

As world leaders pledge to reduce carbon emissions and the importance of protecting the environment continues to grow globally, individuals and businesses are searching for ways to decrease their impact on the environment. It’s no surprise then that professional sports leagues are beginning to develop and encourage ways in which they can become more environmentally friendly, too.

This comes as a great relief to environmental critics, especially considering one baseball game can produce 760,000 bottles and cans that are discarded in the trash rather than recycled, one football stadium can produce about 100,750 tons of carbon dioxide per game, or that NASCAR’s total fuel consumption for an entire season has been estimated at 2 million U.S. gallons.

The decision for national sports teams to promote green initiatives is an important step. Not only will it positively effect the environment while the teams are on the field, but it also has the potential to influence their millions of fans to be green off the field.

1.    Major League Baseball

With 30 teams, 162 games per season, and on average, 80 million spectators, Major League Baseball (MLB) certainly provides its fair share of the negative environmental impact caused by professional sports.

However, due to initiatives over the past few years, the MLB is quickly becoming one of the greenest professional sports leagues. Last year, the MLB partnered with the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) to create a Team Greening Program.

This was the first league-wide environmental protection program and aims to organize and support environmentally sensitive practices. The Team Greening Program plans to:

• Create club eco-committees.
• Provide information on how to offset carbon emissions from the team and fan transportation, as well as, facts and resources to assist each team in assessing their environmental impact and how to reduce it.
• Create an official environmental policy.
• Add environmental policies and language to contracts.
• Reduce the use of paper in offices and switch to recycled paper products.
• Work towards renewable energy use.
• Encourage fans to make environmental changes in their own homes.

The MLB has also made significant changes to their baseball parks across the country. They now have recycling bins for plastic cups and bottles and the vending machines are being made more energy-efficient. Solar panels have been installed to provide some of the energy used for games and even the grounds crew is switching to more environmentally friendly cleaners.

Not only are changes being made for the league as a whole, but individual teams are taking the green movement into their own hands. The Atlanta Braves have built the first ballpark stadium that meets standards created by the U.S. Green Building Council, the Pittsburgh Pirates are using corn-based cups, soy-based ink, and recycled toilet paper, the Boston Red Sox have installed solar panels and the Seattle Mariners recycle food waste, paper and plastic.

2.    National Football League

The MLB is certainly tackling the environment dilemma from all angles, but the National Football League (NFL) is also doing their fair share to make football a green sport.

Although the NFL has had an environmental program since 1992, it wasn’t until recently the league has begun making key improvements, particularly when it comes to the Super Bowl. The program has been working to:

• Improve solid waste management at all NFL facilities.
• Develop environmental guidelines for all contractors and vendors.
• Donate food and leftover building material, office supplies, and sports equipment.
• Make any Super Bowl event carbon neutral.

For the 2008 Super Bowl, the NFL committed to planting 2,700 trees to help offset gas-emissions and the Tampa Electric Company provided renewable energy for 100% of the electricity needs for the game.

At the team level, the Philadelphia Eagles have taken the greatest responsibility for the environment and developed ways to decrease their environmental footprint.

In 2007, the Eagles developed an ambitious program that rewarded all Eagle employees who signed up for Wind Energy. The employees are then reimbursed by the team so there is no out of pocket cost. In 2008, the Eagles purchased 14 million kilowatts of wind power to help the team run on 100% renewable energy at both their Lincoln Financial Field and their training facilities.

As a result of their initiatives, the Eagles have managed to switch 25% of the team’s energy use to renewable sources, avoided 65 tons of greenhouse emission and 2 billion BTUs of dirty energy generation, and also saved 100,000 trees.

3.    National Hockey League

Although hockey is sometimes considered a cleaner sport than others due to shorter schedules and smaller arenas, there is a still a huge footprint left behind from this sport.

In 2007, the National Hockey League (NHL) partnered with The GreenLife Organization to develop solutions to help the league go green. The program focuses on:

• Creating green initiatives.
• Identifying areas that need improvement.
• Offsetting carbon emissions.
• Switching to renewable energy.
• Generating public awareness and promote green living outside the sport.

Like the MLB, the NHL has also been working with the NRDC to provide advice and resources to reduce each NHL club’s impact. The league has also had much success with the NHLPA Carbon Neutral program that encourages players to take action to decrease their footprint on and off the ice.

The program was developed by the National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA) and the David Suzuki Foundation. So far, the program has helped offset more than 4,200 tonnes of carbon emissions this season and 420 NHLPA members have signed on for year two.

4.    National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association has also teamed up with the NRDC to develop programs and events that will help generate awareness and funding to protect the environment.

While the NBA’s partnership with NRDC isn’t as extensive as the MLB or NHL, they are still taking positive steps toward preserving the environment.

The inaugural NBA Green Week, which was held between April 2 and April 10 2009, is a week-long event that engages all 30 teams in auctions, community service programs, and public service announcements. They are also working to create a new micro-website, www.nba.com/green that will feature green tips for fans.

Noted environmentalist and actor, Robert Redford was involved, as well as Addidas, who pledged to outfit players with 100% organic shirts. The NBA store will also host Recycling Dreams, a footwear drive to collect gently used athletic shoes.

Beyond public awareness events, the NBA is working with NRDC to offset energy usage and waste in offices and arenas. Green modifications that are currently underway include:

• Installing solar panels and wind-powered energy sources.
• Installing water-saving fixtures.
• Using organic food in concessions.
• Encouraging public transportation.
• Creating a recycling program.
• Purchasing energy credits.
  

  

5.    NASCAR

Understandably, a sport that involves very fast cars with low miles per gallon, circling a track 500 times is a hard sport to make environmentally friendly.

However, where others may choose the easy road, NASCAR has decided to take the green road and make an effort to reduce their negative impact.

In 2007, NASCAR partnered with the Environmental Protection Agency and announced that they would switch to unleaded racing fuel by the start of the 2008 season. NASCAR’s environmental services provider, Safety-Kleen has also begun collecting the 240 million gallons of used motor oil to re-refine and reuse. Beyond the obvious benefit of reusing the oil rather than throwing it out, re-refined oil also uses 85 percent less energy than making new oil.

NASCAR also participates in National Car Care Month where they help promote better car maintenance, which in turn increases vehicle performance and reduces fuel consumption.

Even some speedways are getting involved to help make a difference. The Michigan International Speedway preserves 200 acres of wetlands and is looking to use wind and solar energy within the next 10-12 months.

While many argue these steps don’t entirely negate the negative impact professional sports can have on the environment, the initiatives do make a difference. If you consider how many professional sports teams there are, simply making even the smallest step can have a massive affect not only on the environment, but also on the millions of fans who watch them.