FEATURES GREEN SPORTS ALLIANCE
“Every sports team is part of the cultural fabric of its community, so we have a social responsibility that teams activate in a number of ways—it hasn’t traditionally been around climate and the environment, but it has been around education, around health, around the community. It’s hard not to make the connection [with sustainability] once you sit back and think about it. It’s new, but it’s obvious and that was the ‘aha’ that we had — ‘boy, why aren’t we doing this’? We ought to be doing this.”
Scott Jenkins, chairman of the Green Sports Alliance teams in the Pacific Northwest. He agreed, and the Vancouver Canucks (NHL), Seattle Storm (WNBA), and the Seattle Mariners (MLB) were brought into the fold. The Green Sports Alliance was born, and the idea spread like wildfire throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond. This cool, cloud-shrouded part of the country has long been a hotbed for environmental awareness, but in the sports world, few teams have carried the torch like the Mariners. In 2012, gb&d told the story of Safeco Field where the Mariners play—a sports venue that has attacked the goal of zero waste with an unparalleled passion. When they first started keeping track in 2005, their waste diversion rate was about 12%. Between 2009 and 2010, when they affirmed their sustainability commitment by joining the Green Sports Alliance, the rate jumped from 38% to 70%. In the last two years, it has topped 90%, and in the 2015 season it is expected edge incredibly close to the 100% goal. “We work very closely with our concessions provider, Cen-
terplate, to increase recycling,” says Rebecca Hale, director of public information for the Mariners, “which also saves us money by reducing the tonnage we send to the landfill.” In 2013 alone, they diverted more than 3 million pounds of waste from the landfill, saving $114,000 in waste disposal costs. Since 2006, the Mariners have reduced their use of natural gas by 40%, electricity by 25%, and water use by 25%, saving an additional $1.75 million. An ongoing fan engagement initiative has resulted in new tactics each year to get the community involved, from a trivia game/scavenger hunt on “Sustainable Saturdays” to a video display in the stadium where fans can track the output of the facility’s photovoltaic array. Two green-themed mascots have also been developed, Captain Plastic and Kid Compost, who pop up on game days to engage children with the waste diversion program. “We continued to peck away at our use of electricity, water, and other utilities,” Hale says. 50% of energy use at the Mariners’ spring training facility in Peoria, Arizona now comes
Two young fans share in the sustainability efforts of the Seattle Mariners by using one the many recycling containers on the stadium’s concourse.
GSA INVOLVEMENT BY THE NUMBERS
NUMBER OF TEAMS 68
may–june 2015
020 014 NUMBER OF COUNTRIES
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PHOTO: COURTESTY OF SEATTLE MARINERS
THE GREEN SPORTS LEADERS OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST While Hershkowitz was lighting the fire on the East Coast, similar events were transpiring out West. Paul G. Allen— the co-founder of Microsoft and owner of the Portland Trail Blazers (NBA), Seattle Seahawks (NFL), and the Seattle Sounders (MLS)—and his philanthropic foundation had been working to green their teams since the early 2000s. “We were looking at [our sports teams] in terms of what could be done about not only their own environmental footprint, but what could be done to inspire the communities where we live, work, and play,” says Justin Zeulner , formerly of Vulcan Philanthropy and the Trail Blazers and now the chief operating officer for the Green Sports Alliance, who spearheaded an energy efficiency retrofit of the Trail Blazers’ arena that reduced their consumption by 35%, the equivalent of 3 million kilowatt hours per year. In 2009, Allen’s group contacted Hershkowitz about starting a coalition of green sports