Pro sports teams around the country are hyping their renewable energy use and promising to become more efficient. Will that help make their fans greener?
The Philadelphia Eagles' Lincoln Financial Field is the greenest stadium
in pro sports.
The NFL season finally kicked off last night when the Dallas Cowboys
came to New York—or actually the New York-adjacent swamplands of New Jersey—to
take on the defending Super Bowl-champion Giants. (As a Philadelphia Eagles
fan, I would have liked some sort of double-forfeit scenario, but it wasn’t
meant to be.) The sky-high TV ratings of the NFL Kickoff game is a reminder that—Presidential
campaigns and political conventions aside—what Americans really care about is
professional sports. Doubt that? Nearly 167 million Americans watched
this year’s Super Bowl, well above the 130
million or so people who voted in the 2008
Presidential elections.
The sheer influence of pro sports prompted the Natural Resources Defense
Council (NRDC) to begin working in 2003 to help green the multi-billion dollar
industry. Yesterday NRDC released a report highlighting some of the
best environmental initiatives being carried out by NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB and WNBA
teams—more than a quarter of which have shifted to renewable energy for at
least some of their operations, while more than half have energy efficiency
programs. How much of an impact a little solar and a little extra insulation
have against the incalculably huge carbon footprints and energy bills of the
nation’s pro sports teams isn’t clear. But NRDC hopes that pro sports—perhaps
the one area where Americans of all political stripes come together—can
demonstrate that going green isn’t extreme, as NRDC green sports project
director Allen Hershkowitz put
it in a statement:
A
cultural shift in environmental awareness is needed in order for us to address
the serious ecological problems we face, and the sports industry, through its
own innovative actions, has chosen to lead the way. Pro sports are showing that
smart energy, water and recycling practices make sense. They save money and
prevent waste. That’s as mainstream and non-partisan as it comes.
Or at least that’s what NRDC and environmentalists are hoping. Clean
energy and efficiency are pretty mainstream and non-partisan notions, especially when they’re removed from the messiness of politics and
stripped for the most part of any mention of more sensitive topics like climate
change. If solar panels and biodiesel are good enough for the Eagles—whose
Lincoln Financial Field is set to become the first stadium in the
U.S. capable of generating 100% of its energy on site—it should be good enough
for all Americans. Maybe
even Cowboys fans.
Highlights from the report
include:
·
·
The NHL has introduced
Gallons for Goals, committing to restore 1,000 gallons of water to a critically
dewatered river in the Northwest for every goal scored in the regular season.
(Of course, this means that every time your favorite goalie stops a shot, he’s
actually hurting the environment. Although that may explain what Penguins’
goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was doing during last spring’s
playoffs.
·
This year the Cleveland
Indian’s Progressive Field became the first stadium to install a wind turbine,
which generates more than 40,000 kilowatt hours per year. (No word on whether
the Chicago White Sox will try to tap the wind energy generated by major league strikeout leader Adam
Dunn’s swings and misses.)
·
The Seattle Mariners
replaced an incandescent scoreboard with an LED one, reducing electricity
consumption by more than 90%. (It’s not part of their green program, but the
Mariners are also saving on electricity consumption for their scoreboard by simply not scoring. That’s offensive conservation.)
·
In one year, energy
efficiency at the Miami Heat’s American Airlines Arena resulted in 53% less
energy use than the average facility of the same size. This saved the team $1.6
million—enough to buy you about 7 games of Lebron James.
Bryan Walsh is a senior editor at TIME.
Find him on Twitter at @bryanrwalsh. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s
Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME
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