Sustainable Saunders

Football is one of my favorite sports to play and watch. I’ve been competing in a  Yahoo! fantasy football league with my friends from high school for the past five years or so. To my detriment, I probably spend more time watching the NFL  on Sundays than I do studying. As I was looking for a new tight end to replace my injured Jermichael Finley, I asked myself.. is the NFL making any efforts to go green? In my search for an answer, I came across an interesting article called: “Six Ways the NFL is Greening Super Bowl XLIV. Really.”

Many companies take advantage of the Super Bowl’s enormous viewing audience to promote their latest “green” message. I’m going to describe several ways the NFL is trying to make the event itself more sustainable.

1. This is the fourth year in a row that the NFL will use RECs (Reusable Energy Certificates) to match the electricity consumption of the Super Bowl and its related events. I would like to see them expand this procedure to their playoff games, and eventually regular season games as well.

2. It is going to fund the planting of “hundreds” of trees at various locations throughout South Florida. As a tree planter who worked for a company that planted more than 100,000 trees a day, I realize that hundreds of trees is a relatively insignificant amount. I think it would be extremely hip if they planted one tree for every fan in attendance.

3. Solid waste will be reduced through recycling at Dolphin Stadium (home to this year’s game).

4. Extra prepared food from Super Bowl events will be collected and donated to community agencies.

5. All leftover materials from Super Bowl and Pro Bowl events are inventoried and donated to local non-profit agencies in South Florida.

6. The NFL is designing a new project called “Super Kids” that provides an opportunity for local school children to donate their used books and sports equipment to other needy children in the South Florida community.

All in all, I commend the NFL for its efforts. Unlike some of the companies who’s green motives I’ve criticized in earlier blog posts, the NFL does not appear to be trumpeting or seeking “hero” status for their efforts . Thus making me less inclined to doubt their sincerity.

The original article goes into further detail regarding these six initiatives and many more, including the idea of a “zero waste football stadium”. To read this article, click on the link below:

Six Ways the NFL is Greening Super Bowl XLIV