Time for sports teams to be environmental all stars

I make no excuses for two beliefs:  that baseball is the greatest game ever invented, and that by 2020 we could have a country powered completely by non-polluting forms of energy (and yes, nuclear energy pollutes).  Professional sports franchises have begun to address, over the past couple of years with some prodding from the NRDC, their environmental impact.  In 2011, Ian Gordon posed the question as to whether stadium sports can really be green, and to date, we do not have a full answer to that question.  The answer to the question should be yes, and although all major sports are making progress, it has not been fast enough.

In 2010, several sports franchises in cooperation with NRDC and other partners formed the the Green Sports Alliance to:

"help sports teams, venues and leagues enhance their environmental performance. Alliance members represent over 170 sports teams and venues from 15 different sports leagues."

Sports franchises face significant challenges: their stadiums use more energy each year than many cities, and generate waste at rates many times that of residential neighborhoods.  They have innate advantages, though, from control over 100% of their operations to strong influence over local government to huge buying power to intermittent usage.  These advantages, especially in cities where several major sports franchises reside, mean that major sports franchises can and should be at the forefront of zero-impact operations (along with major universities that have sports stadiums).

In their report on the greening of sports stadiums, the NRDC highlights major events and stadiums that have gone beyond talk and delivered on renewable energy installations in addition to purchases, on waste reduction or zero waste events, on purchasing products that are benign to the environment.  The fact that some have achieved these feats means that all can.  The time has come for our cities, states, and the sports fans within them accept nothing less.  Although teams have significant leverage, cities and states own portions of several stadiums.  Those at a minimum should meet or exceed what the Eagles have done in Philadelphia, for example.  The NRDC should push leagues to adopt a zero-energy/zero-waste/zero-impact standard for all stadiums by 2020, and the government should back that up with a requirement by 2025 (at the latest...these could respectively be 2015 and 2020).

Sports defines so much in our lives: our language, our culture, our conversation.  We celebrate the military at our events, teams make great efforts to support our youth, and teams work with cities to provide inner city infrastructure for sports.  Although it seems to be asking too much to ask sporting venues to lead the charge on environmental issues as well, it only makes sense.  Given their impact, their resources, and their influence, major sports franchises have the capacity to lead more so than any other single industry except maybe higher education.  Fans will not necessarily demand it because sports is supposed to provide a diversion from what troubles us.  It is up to our civic leaders and the franchises themselves to take the lead.

I do not plan to boycott baseball until it steps forward, but I will be all that more proud of taking my seat in left field with a beer and a veggie dog to watch my Sox knowing that nothing about my enjoyment of the game takes away from the quality of life of another.