By: Piper Kujac
Earlier this month, the inaugural Green Sports Alliance Summit converged 25 sports teams and venues in nine different leagues for an unprecedented ‘watershed moment’ to share best practices in sustainability and sports facility management. Venue operators, sports marketing directors and environmental scientists collaborated to exchange experience and create meaningful and measurable metrics. The information gathered from this collaboration provides a roadmap for teams and venues to become more sustainable and reduce their environmental footprint.
It all began when founding members, such as the Seattle Mariners, discovered enormous savings by implementing simple sustainability standards at great scale. Since 2006, the Mariners have reduced consumption of natural gas by 60%, electricity by 30% and water by 15%. They have also increased their recycling from just 12% in 2005, to a benchmark today of 80% of all waste generated at Safeco Field recycled or composted. Out of these achievements emerged theGreen Sports Alliance, a non-profit organization with a mission to reduce the environmental impact of professional sports and inspire fans to join these efforts.
"Sports brands hold tremendous value to the hearts of the general public," says Scott Jenkins, vice president of ballpark operations for the Seattle Mariners. "We can benchmark our performance, and then by sharing that information with the general public, using our brain to leverage it, we can reach a lot of people."
Reaching a lot of people is an understatement when you look at the sheer numbers attending sports venues at any given game. And if you look at the coveted ad slots during the Superbowl, clearly these events have serious influence over the general public. Tie in the purchasing power and green marketing potential, and suddenly sports venues become the new Wal-Mart of supply chain management.
Chris Oxley, of the Rose Quarter in Portland, OR, says, “For us, as a sports venue, we are easily one of the most highly recognized and formidable buildings or landmarks. So, I think we bear an additional responsibility to not only do the right thing but also demonstrate leadership in this area to learn and be inspired by.”
Founding Alliance members include strategic partnerships with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and theNatural Resource Defense Council (NRDC), to name a few, who help keep the goals in check and GSA members best informed. NRDC’s Allen Hershkowity says, “We have to use every tool in the toolbox. All industries meet on the sports field… the chemical industry, the auto industry, food, plastic, paper… all of these industries are the supply chains to professional sports.” Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the EPA confers, "So much of our work at the EPA is about cost saving sustainable practices that will protect our health and clean up the environment. I’m glad we can now count the members of the Green Sports Alliance, as important players in that effort.”
The results of these cost saving practices are no small measure. The Rose Quarter’s Justin Zeulner shares, “One very simple thing we implemented was just having our security crew go through at night and turn off lights that shouldn’t have been on, and we saw a 38% reduction in energy use.”
As the GSA takes off and gains momentum heading east across the US, we expect to see energy savings worth getting as excited about as Plaxico Burress coming back to the the NFL.
Since then, NASCAR has built the largest recycling program in sports. This year it's on target to divert more than 1,000 tons of material from events -- including cardboard and more than 12 million beverage containers – from landfill.
