The Sport of Sustainability

Few things in life bring people together like sporting events. And recently, sustainability has been getting into the game. The Olympics, U.S. Open Tennis. Even the sport of politics, with the Democratic Convention. Sports teams and events are getting greener.

One of the first—and best known—is the Philadelphia Eagles. Its stadium is the benchmark for green arenas, with sophisticated energy and waste reduction systems. The NFL team has also made it their mission, adopting a forest to off-set the inevitable carbon emitted by flying around big guys on big planes for every Sunday.

Of course, even the Eagles can get, um, a bit carried away....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paige-donner/greening-hollywood-nfl-ea_b_115138.html

Here's what a few others are doing:

Major League Baseball. MLB partnered with the NRDC to launch the "Team Greening Program" which promote sustainability across all of the teams. This season, you can expect to see robust recycling programs at the stadiums, solar-powered scoreboards, as well as material and information in the stadiums to encourage fans to go green.

http://www.nrdc.org/media/2008/080317.asp

Motorsport Racing. Even the worst of the gas-guzzlers have caught on to the green movement, as race cars like the Corvette Z06 E85 (as in Ethanol E85). In the 2009 Dakar Rally, keep a look out for the Kenya Kwanza team of Glen Edmunds, who will be running a sustainable bio-diesel to raise awareness of climate change.

http://www.ewire.com/display.cfm/Wire_ID/4965

New Jersey Nets. A slam dunk-- the Nets are way ahead in the green game. They are the first carbon-neutral team in the NBA. Our favorite part of the site, check out the video on the right hand side. It features one of the official team dancers shares the Nets visions with fans.

http://netsgogreen.com/

Shea Stadium. And in our hometown, New York's new stadium is going green.

http://www.observer.com/2008/new-shea-stadium-goes-green-what-does-it-mean

With tens of thousands of people attending these events every day, the impact is substantial. Of course, getting to the new "green stadiums" is usually the least sustainable part of the event.