Share and Voice: Sports Leagues Going Green

Hey everybody. So people who know me know that I like sports. My dream job would be the General Manager of a National Hockey League team, meaning I would get to make all the decisions (who to draft, trade, sign, etc.). So I got to thinking again, and I decided to investigate what the four major sports leagues are doing to go green. So below, I have a section devoted to each league, with a little bit of info as to what they've done.

National Football League
At the Super Bowl a couple of years ago, the NFL made a huge effort to go green. About 60,000 lbs of food that was made was not eaten at the stadium alone. So, instead of creating 30 TONS of waste, they decided to give the food to soup kitchens, shelters, churches, and other organizations. No waste, plus good karma! Another thing most people wouldn't even think about is all the costs (in terms of carbon emissions) of having to haul it to the garbage dumps. So they saved there as well.

Then, through all the car and electricity used in and around the stadium, it amounted to 1 million pounds of Carbon Dioxide. To go Carbon Neutral, the league planted 3,000 trees in the Miami area.

Major League Baseball
MLB has joined forces with the NRDC (National Resources Defense Council) to help each team make a stronger effort to be more eco-friendly. Here is what they will help each team do.

• Adopting an official environmental policy

• Incorporating environmental language into contracts, purchasing policies and requests for proposals that specify preferences for environmentally sound products and services

• Encouraging the use of renewable energy

• Providing information about how to credibly offset the carbon emissions related to team and fan transportation

• Using post-consumer recycled content paper for all paper products

• Implementing paper reduction strategies in offices

• Offsetting the environmental impact of up to half of team and employee travel

• Establishing club eco-committees

National Basketball Association
One article from the NBA that caught my eye was about the Chicago Bulls. Instead of just having their team go green for the first ever NBA Green Week, they put an emphasis on educating the fans. Throughout their game on April 9th, they had random ways people can go green on the scoreboard. They also had displays throughout the arena further educating fans. The team also gave out 20,000 Energy Saving light bulbs to fans as they left the arena.

National Hockey League
This one's a little more complicated. The NHL teamed with the David Suzuki Foundation to create the NHLPA's Carbon Neutral Challenge. When players have to travel to cities via airplane, that puts carbon emissions into air, which aren't good for the environment. So the NHL is rewarding players who do things to go green, which 'evens' out the carbon level. Think of it this way. Air travel is bad for the environment, going green is good for it, so they equal each other out so to speak. Read more about it here.