As a boy, I dreamed of playing a professional sport, but then I grew older and realized my athletic abilities were inferior in comparison to the Pro’s. So my dream of playing a professional sport fizzled, but my enthusiasm of following them still runs strong. I’ve often thought about how great it would be to work for a professional league, take the NFL for example, I can’t think of many jobs that I wouldn’t want. A coach, a trainer, a ref, an IT guy, a stadium announcer, a mascot - you name it, they all sound great to me. Why? Because I’m passionate about the NFL. I watch games that I don’t even care about, I spend hours a week analyzing my fantasy team, I even plan vacations and camping trips around the Cowboys schedule.
Then on Saturday night as I watched Romo on the sidelines flip through several printed pictures of his interception, I wondered what green efforts the NFL is making. I thought of how nice it would be to work in the Environmental Management Program for professional or NCAA leagues. Getting paid well, doing something you are infatuated with for an organization you are obsessed with. How can one not be wildly successful in such an environment?
I did some reading and found that most leagues either have their own internal program, or formed a strategic alliance with an existing group: NHL/GreenLife, MLB/NRDC. It seems most of these sports-related, eco-improvement initiatives involve recycling, and making events like the Superbowl “carbon neutral”. This is done by planting trees, buying offsets, and using alternative energy sources where possible. But surely they can do more, right? From a sheer public awareness standpoint, professional sporting organizations are in a great position to greenducate our youth, given who they have as spokespeople.
Suppose you were the environmental program director for a professional league, what are some projects you would consider undertaking? Could a carbon-cap (similar to a salary-cap), which sets a limit on the amount of emitted pollutant in a given season be imposed on teams?
3 comments:
You've hit on a great topic. As a fellow football junkie, I'd absolutely love to work for a sports team in any capacity, especially in an environmental capacity. Seems like every industry will be hiring folks who have environmental expertise, so it makes sense to build our knowledge as much as possible in this area.
I was reading that interview with the NFL's environmental guy, and it kind of struck me as weird that his role is really just to focus on the big events (Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, etc.). Kind of makes it sound like they're just concerned about committing an eco-foul on a big stage, so they hire this guy to make sure they appear green for those days.
Hopefully, that's not the case. Hopefully they've got eco-improvements happening at every game and in between games (administrative functions, team facilities, etc.).
Mike - I thought about this yesterday from the air-conditioned confines of the club lounge (with 85 degree temperatures outside) at Raymond James. Thousands of people drove thousands of cars to a stadium to watch a game. That stadium was powered and created a ton of trash. I'm not advocating abolishing sports (far from it dude), but maybe some sports would be fine if half as many people attended. Get rid of domes (hint hint Tampa Bay Rays) and allow me to refill my beer cup instead of making me get a new one every time.
Yeah, it's hard to argue the necessity of huge sporting events like that. But I love them so much! I don't know if I could give them up, but if they were operated in a sustainable manner (as sustainable as they can be), then maybe we wouldn't have to.
All the paper/plastic cups = not good. All the driving from across the state (and beyond) = not good. Running the huge overhead lights = not good. It would be hard to make these events truly sustainable, but they could at least improve from where they're at right now.
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