When you think of professional sports, you don’t usually get a fuzzy, green image. But I recently read that my hometown team, the Philadelphia Eagles, is one of the greenest sports teams in the National Football League.
Going Eagle Green
Inspired to make a difference by Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, in 2003 Eagles owner Jeff Lurie and his then wife Christina launched the team’s Go Green program. They sought advice from the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) on ways to make their operations more sustainable. Over the past decade, the Eagles’ efforts have included:
- Eliminating fossil fuels and powering their stadium, Lincoln Lincoln Financial Field, completely on renewable energy. So far this includes 11,000 solar panels and 14 wind turbines.
- Stepping up their recycling (in 2013, they were at 99% diversion from the landfill).
- Using green cleaning products.
- Converting cooking oil into biodeisel fuel.
- Using recycled paper products and compostable food packaging.
- Offsetting team travel by planting trees in Pennsylvania (the 6.5-acre Eagles Forest) and a Louisiana wildlife refuge.
Pretty awesome, huh? They may not have won a championship, but they’re winning eco points, for sure. Lincoln Field is now LEED Silver certified for Existing Buildings: Operation & Maintenance.
Green Stadiums in the NFL
Since the Eagles’ initiative, the NRDC has worked with many other pro sports teams through their award-winning online Greening Advisor program, which educates and encourages the sports industry on ways specific city teams can conserve natural resources and reduce their carbon footprint—an idea spearheaded by NRDC trustee, Robert Redford.
Is your favorite football team one of them? Around the NFL, other green actions include:
- The San Francisco 49ers‘ new Levi’s Stadium is the first LEED Gold certified football stadium (for New Construction). It features a living roof of green and flowering plants to reduce energy consumption and insulate the building; three solar bridges; reclaimed wood and other building products; and farm-to-table concession menus.
- New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, home of the NY Giants and NY Jets, was sited on a former brownfield and features a composting program as well as a ring of solar panels that light up in the playing team’s colors.
- The Detroit Lions‘ Ford Field was constructed with recycled steel, glass and rubber.
- The Chicago Bears‘ Soldier Field, which was the first NFL stadium to achieve LEED certification in 2012, has an extensive recycling program, LED lighting and electric vehicle charging stations for fans.
- Seattle Seahawks‘ stadium uses 3,750 solar panels on its roof and ultra low-flow water fixtures, saving more than 1.3 million gallons of water annually.
- Kansas City Chiefs fans who “get caught recycling” on camera receive a big prize and stadium-wide recognition.
- The Atlanta Falcons‘ new stadium (planned for 2017) will feature a rainwater collection system for irrigation and cooling.
- Plus, for more than fifteen years, the NFL’s Super Bowl environmental program has worked with partners in each Super Bowl host community to develop sustainability projects around five main areas: solid waste management, material reuse, food recovery, sports equipment and book donations, and greenhouse gas reduction.
Below, the Philadelphia Eagles include a little humor in their sustainability efforts with this sign in the men’s bathroom at Lincoln Financial Field.
I love that the green movement is sweeping into the high visibility world of professional sports, which has quite an impact on kids. Hopefully, when our kids are our age, vegetated roofs, wind turbines and rainwater collection systems will be the norm in sports facilities around the world.
