Similar to the Minnesota Twins, who can soon boast the completion of a new LEED-certified baseball stadium, many professional sports organizations and franchises in the U.S. have taken the initiative to be greener and promote sustainability among employees, players, partners and fans.
The Pittsburgh Penguins hope to attain LEED Gold certification for their new arena, the Consol Energy Center, which will be considered the greenest sports venue in the U.S. upon completion in 2010. In 2008, Andrew Ference of the Boston Bruins launched the NHLPA Carbon Neutral Challenge, a program in which each NHL player who joins buys 10 tons of Gold Standard carbon credits to offset carbon emissions. The Philadelphia Eagles – the first professional sports franchise in the U.S. to work on reducing their environmental impact through their Go Green program – obtain 100% of their energy needs from wind power, reimburse employees for the cost of switching to wind energy in their homes and, similar to the new Yankee Stadium, recycle cooking oil from Lincoln Financial Field into bio-fuel. The Colorado Rapids, one of the greenest clubs in Major League Soccer, has, among myriad other environmentally-friendly initiatives, started holding a “Play Clean Night” home game as close to Earth Day as possible.
The “greening” of professional sports doesn’t stop at the franchise level. MLB, NBA, WNBA, USTA, NHL and MLS have all partnered with the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) and other organizations to develop strategies for reducing their environmental footprint. Check out the following programs to see what these organizations are up to and how they’re trying to improve their impact on the planet:
MLB Team Green Program
NBA Green
WNBA Green Week
US Tennis Association (USTA)
NHL Green
MLS W.O.R.K.S.