31 January 2008
Green Joins Glitz at Super Bowl, Indianapolis Auto Race
Sports events offer legacy of conservation to host communities
Washington –- Planting trees, recycling waste materials and bringing excess food to homeless shelters seems unglamorous in comparison to perhaps America’s biggest and glitziest sports event -- the Super Bowl of professional American football.
But in the parlance of its advocates, “going green” is a smart business investment that also conserves natural resources in the host city for the championship game of the National Football League (NFL). The 42nd Super Bowl will be played February 3 in Phoenix between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants.
Jack Groh, program director for the NFL’s environmental program, told America.gov that efficient management of resources is the goal behind each of the league’s recycling projects.
For example, in 2007, more than 60,000 pounds of food prepared for but not sold during Super Bowl 41 activities in Miami was distributed to 55,000 people at various soup kitchens, homeless shelters and churches in that city. The donations saved the local food banks approximately $117,000, said Groh. The prepared food, which must meet state health codes, otherwise would have been discarded.
The NFL’s environmental program, begun in 1994, calls for recycling office supplies, building and decorative materials and merchandise. Groh said salvaging “thousands of yards” of carpets that the Super Bowl venues use only once is an example of good conservation efforts.
One of the NFL’s most environmentally friendly teams, the Philadelphia Eagles, says its "Go Green" program, since its inception in 2003 has eliminated some 3 million kilograms of greenhouse gases and recycled nearly 150 tons of paper, cardboard and beverage containers.
Groh said he was particularly proud of the NFL’s “Sports Equipment and Book Donation Project.” Local children from the host Super Bowl city bring sports gear and books to their schools for donation to the region’s needy children several weeks before the NFL championship game. To date, some 22,000 sports items and books have been donated in the Phoenix area, Groh reported.
REDUCING THE LEAGUE’S CARBON FOOTPRINT
The league also seeks to lessen its “carbon footprint” -- the carbon dioxide emissions generated by league activities -- by using alternative fuels to power hybrid vehicles that transport officials to different sites in the Super Bowl city.
The league also works with the U.S. Forest Service on reforesting projects. Leading up to the Phoenix Super Bowl, about 40.5 hectares of trees were planted in the White Mountain Apache Indian reservation in east-central Arizona where vast acres of timber were destroyed in a 2002 fire. Groh said Apache tribe members have been hired to work on the reforesting.
“Not only do we get the environmental benefits of reforestation,” said Groh, “but we also are able to provide some economic boost” to the Apache tribe by “hiring them to do the tree planting for us.”
Groh said what most gratifies him is the “legacy” provided by the league’s conservation efforts in the Super Bowl host city.
“Some of the work we do each year continues after the Super Bowl has ended, whether it involves reforestation, working with local food banks or helping to develop or expand recycling programs,” Groh said.
The NFL, said Groh, practices conservation “because we’re convinced that incorporating environmental principles into our management is by itself a sound business practice and more cost efficient” than wasteful, polluting practices.
“What we’re doing is not just philanthropy, not just warm and fuzzy” sentiments. “There are some real, tangible benefits to it,” Groh said.
The Super Bowl will be telecast in the United States on the Fox network, owned by the News Corporation, which also has begun its own eco-friendly climate change initiative. The company attempts to use locally grown organic food, biodiesel fuel, hybrid vehicles, bicycles instead of golf carts and recyclable materials.
ENERGIZING INDIANAPOLIS RACE WITH GREEN POWER
Another annual U.S. sports spectacular is the Indianapolis 500-mile (805 kilometer) auto race, where the 33 cars that qualify for the event now are powered completely by ethanol.
Terry Angstadt, president of commercial activities for the IndyCar series, said the race is in its second full season of using 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol, made from corn grown in the American Midwest. Ethanol advocates say the fuel-grade ethanol (used as a substitute for gasoline) is completely renewable and an environmentally friendly source of energy. The Indianapolis 500 is the premier event of the IndyCar racing circuit, which consists of 17 auto races held from March through September in various sites around the United States.
Angstadt told America.gov that ethanol, with a higher octane rating than the traditional gasoline used previously at the Indianapolis 500, results in better fuel mileage for the high-powered race cars that exceed speeds of 320 kilometers per hour.
Working with the Nebraska-based Ethanol Promotion and Information Counsel, IndyCar seeks to spread the word to consumers that a 650-horsepower racing vehicle can be powered on the Indianapolis speedway “efficiently and effectively” by ethanol while also providing environmental benefits, said Angstadt.
“If racing cars can be powered by ethanol,” he said, “your [200-horsepower] passenger car certainly” can be powered the same way.
