This article was written by Jessica Esposito who is a research fellow in the New York office of The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) where she works on the "greening" of sports. The NRDC was founded in 1970 and is made up of lawyers, scientists and policy experts and has more that one million members.
This story talks about the efforts that the MLB is making to create greener ball parks as well as different changes and improvements that are being made during games. For instance in the 2009 World Series members of NRDC will be roaming the ballpark collecting recyclable plastic bottles and spreading the message to fans about going green.
Although some changes are being made that can be seen, like recycling, many of the changes that the MLB is making are behind the scenes. One of the biggest changes that is being seen is with the energy use at major league stadiums.
Some of the changes that each stadium has made in their effort to go green are highlighted below:
- lighting improvements installed at the new stadium save nearly 207,000 lbs of CO2 emissions per night game
- all concession cups are made from bio-based, compostable plastic
- low-flow and water efficient plumbing fixtures are projected to save 3.1 million gallons of water per year
- Completed an energy audit that identified opportunities for enhanced energy efficiency and have installed lighting and equipment improvements
- Local and organic food options
- Recycling program for plastic, aluminum, glass, paper, cardboard is enhanced by "Red Goes Green" team of volunteers, which collect recyclables in the aisles during every game.
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That is really neat that the MLB is taking steps to become more green. Hopefully other professional leagues will follow. That is a huge step at Yankee Stadium the cups they are using.
ReplyDeleteThat is really cool I am sure a lot of people don't think to recycle at big games like the World Series or even sporting events. I think most people tent to leave stuff under their seats or just in the nearest garbage without even thinking about it.
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