Sustainability In Sport

[feministism]

[mistyskeleton]

you caused this.

you fed children stories about overthrowing corrupt governments and expected us to not notice the signs??

millennials and generation z grew up on star wars, hunger games, divergent, the maze runner, avatar, mad max, narnia, lord of the rings, snowpiercer, superheroes, and countless other stories.

we devoured our heroes taking on corrupt leaders like president snow and darth vader since we were babies.

and you get mad at us for revolting, for protesting?

this was our childhood! we read about young people starting revolutions.

katniss everdeen was a teenager. luke skywalker was barely an adult. tris prior was sixteen. harry potter was twelve when his journey started. aang and his group of friends? the oldest was sixteen.

we are becoming what you’ve given us. if you are afraid of our revolution: be ready.

-a letter from my generation

[sustainabilityinsport]

Ah, the city of Brotherly Love

Anyone out there an Eagles fan? Personally, I’m a Pats fan but it’s hard not to love what the Eagles are doing for the environment at Lincoln Financial Field. They’re currently the greenest NFL team (at least by my research) and they do some amazing things. 

Let’s start off by talking about their waste reduction. The program began in 2003 and has evolved to be so intensive that the Eagles are able to divert 99% of all waste from landfills. That’s a big deal! They go above and beyond recycling by including composting programs, Green Teams, and sending used cooking oil to become biofuel. They do it all at Lincoln Financial Field and their recycle bins are only a small part of that. 

In an effort to become zero waste the organization seeks to offset the carbon footprint of team travel by planting trees in deforested areas in Pennsylvania and purchasing seedlings to be planted in refuge areas around the country. They also use entirely green energy at their field with over 11,000 solar panels and 14 wind turbines on site they generate most of their own energy and purchase clean energy credits from local energy providers to come up with the rest. They were also able to reduce their energy consumption so that they would have to produce less. 

Aren’t you impressed? I am.

So, what can you do to be more like the Philadelphia Eagles? I’m glad you asked.

Did you know the Eagles switched to entirely eco-friendly cleaning products? That’s a small change that you and I can make but it will still have a huge impact. Not only will it reduce the chemicals we’re releasing to the environment but it’ll stop supporting companies whose cleaners are chocked full of chemicals. It’s the consumer way of telling them to change.

Having your own wind turbines and solar panels would be great but most of the people reading this are in college and eat mac ‘n cheese for dinner every night because it’s cheap. So instead, try looking for ways you can cut back on energy consumption or find out if your energy provider offers clean energy options, it’s usually just as affordable. 

Just being conscious of how your actions impact the world around will bring you closer to being like the Philadelphia Eagles but taking those few extra steps will help everyone out. 

[sustainabilityinsport]

NHL Green, Breathe Happy

Every June the NHL holds their draft to bring new players into the league. Prior to the draft though, is another event that brings together old players, new players, and hopeful draft picks: The Green Legacy Tree Project. 

The project began in Pittsburg, PA in 2012 when the NHL decided that in each city that hosted the draft thirty trees would be planted to show the commitment of each NHL team (thirty in all) to going green. While this is a great gesture it also helps the cities in more than just aesthetics. 

According to Urban Releaf, planting trees in urban areas helps to improve air quality, water quality, and helps to regulate city temperatures. Trees help to improve air quality in cities and urban areas by absorbing air pollution released into the atmosphere, as cities and urban areas tend to have more air pollution even the thirty trees the NHL plants can make a difference. As for water quality, trees not only store fresh water but also help to purified and clean water already in the ground via their root systems. The trees help to shade homes, buildings, and other areas helping to reduce cooling costs in the summer and to help keep pavement from heating up and perpetuating the release of heat.

Other benefits of trees in urban areas include habitats for birds, insects and small animals (I’m looking at you squirrels), releasing clean air in addition to absorbing pollutants, reduce the chances and impacts of flooding.

And those are just the eco benefits. The economic, psychological, and physiological impacts are out there too. So, what can you do to help this?

There are so many options for people to do help get more urban forests. If you live in an urban area you could plant a tree if you have the space, or even just some plant some flowers in the ground or in a pot. It won’t have the same effect but something is better than nothing. You can also check in with your local parks and recreation department, you never know if they’re looking to build a new park. There are also plenty of opportunities to volunteer to clean up parks, plant on dividers or islands, and help maintain outdoor areas. By supporting these efforts you can help make sure more like it happen.

[sustainabilityinsport]

San Francisco 49ers

Ah football, who doesn’t love watching giant men collide for several hours straight every Sunday? I know what you’re all thinking: we only care about football because of all the awesome greening efforts being taken by various NFL teams. And I must say, same here. 

The first LEED Gold certified stadium of substantial size if Levi’s Stadium, the new home of the 49ers. To clarify, substantial size means seating 69,000+ fans. Yeah, talk about impressive. How do they manage it?

For starters, they have the Faithful Farm, a garden on the roof of the SAP building that houses their suites. The Faithful Farm has two eco-benefits, reducing the carbon footprint by reducing incoming food and packing, and also offsetting. It’s not much but the plants do help offset some of the stadiums emissions. In addition to that it helps reduce the heating and cooling costs of the suites meaning that less energy is being used. Plus, on top of all the eco-benefits they also donate a lot of unused prepared food to local food charities. 

But wait! There’s more! They’ve been able to cut the water intake of the field in half and recycle upwards of 85% of all the water used in the stadium. Talk about awesome! 

The stadium just opened up in 2014 and this is their second season in the building. Maybe they’re already seeing some cost savings from all the improvements from using reclaimed building materials to the addition of solar panels. What is what you can do at home to see similar savings. 

Take after the 49ers and try growing your own plants in a garden. Just be careful that doing that doesn’t cause you to use too much water. This may be better if you live an area that gets regular rain or at least enough rain so that you don’t lose the benefit of growing plants by using too much water. 

See what you can do to cut back on energy use throughout your home. I’m suggesting that you go buy solar panels because that’s crazy expensive but maybe give energy saving lightbulbs a shot. Or when you refill your printer paper try getting the stuff that’s been recycled. It may cost more than regular paper but if you’re implementing these other savings ideas you should have enough pocket change.

Plus isn’t the environment worth an extra $1.42 at Target?

[sustainabilityinsport]

Go Twins, Go Green!

When it comes to baseball everyone knows that the Twins will disappoint you. I’m sorry Minnesota, but it’s just a well known fact at this point. What most people don’t know though, is that the Twins will go above and beyond your expectations when it comes to going green. 

All the way back in 2010 when they built Target Field, the Twins were the first team in the MLB to be LEED certified for new construction and the second to be LEED certified in maintenance and operations. That’s impressive but what does it mean? A very good question. It means that they set restrictions for how resource efficient they wanted the stadium to be when building it. Such as, maybe they wanted it to use 5% less water than the old stadium (I’m making this up because the US Green Building Council sets the standards ) and then they designed the building to be that way. By achieving that resource efficient goal they’re able to become LEED certified. What’s even cooler than that is how they do it. There’s a tank under the warning track around the field that collects rain water. While that may not seem cool, they use that water to wash the seating in the lower sections of the stadium and save about 2 MILLION gallons of water a year. Are you impressed yet?

If you’re not, don’t worry because we’re only just starting composting. Did you know that everything that comes out of the Twins concession stands is compostable? That beer cup, compostable. That tray, compostable. That fork/knife/spoon, compostable. The only exceptions to this are the wrappers which are trash and the souvenir items which are recyclables. This program has diverted over 6,000 tons from local landfills since 2009 and it doesn’t stop there. Any trash the ballpark does produce is taken to the Hennepin County Energy Recovery Center where it’s burned to create energy for the ballpark.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: WOW, the Twins are amazing, how could this get better? I’m here to tell you it that it gets better because they give back. Food waste is a huge issue in the world especially when hunger is such a big problem but the Twins don’t even waste food. Every year they donate more than 10 tons of food to local charities. Now, ballpark food may not sound very appetizing to everyone but it can be the difference between dinner and no dinner. Plus, if you’ve been to Target Field you know they have surprisingly good food.

So, are you impressed? I hope so. If not please let me know what it would take to impress you. Is there something more than the greenest ballpark in America?

[sustainabilityinsport]

Sustainabilty in Sport

This video is the first part of a multipart assignment that focuses on sustainability in the sports industry. It gives an overview of sustainability as well ...

This is a video explaining the basics of sustainability in sport for a class I’m doing and this blog will go in deeper with that. If this is something you’re interested in I definitely recommend checking it out and invite questions.