Green Sports Alliance Announces Environmental Innovator of the Year Awards

By Lew Blaustein, GreenSportsBlogThe Green Sports Alliance today announced ten winners of its 2019 Environmental Innovator awards. The honorees — a wide-ranging group that includes a chef in addition to the more teams, venues and nonprofits one might associate with this award — will be presented with their hardware at the Alliance’s Summit at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on June 19.Last week, the Green Sports Alliance announced that the USTA, Lauren Tracy, its director of strategic initiatives, and the legendary Billie Jean King, had won its 2019 Environmental Leader award.Today, the Portland, Oregon-based Alliance followed that up by recognizing ten organizations with 2019 Environmental Innovator awards. In no particular order, the winners are:The Center for Sport and Urban Policy (CSUP) at Georgia State University works to enhance public understanding of issues related to sports and environmental sustainability by bridging the gap between academic research and the sports industry. CSUP provided volunteer recruitment services for the Playoff Green program at the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship Game, where more than 40 students, faculty, and staff served as Green Ambassadors to promote sustainable behavior during the game.Despite not reaching the NBA Finals, the Milwaukee Bucks had a breakout 2018-19 regular season, securing the league’s best regular season record. The club also moved into the beautiful new Fiserv Forum, which earned LEED Silver certification soon after it opened. And arena management, in conjunction with concessionaire Levy, announced a broad swath of sustainability initiatives, including plans to not offer straws at events and to utilize compostable food packaging. To date, Fiserv Forum has eliminated 370,000 straws and 50 tons of food waste that would have otherwise gone to landfills.Staying in Milwaukee, Chef Seth VanderLaan, of Delaware North, has made sustainability a focus at Miller Park, home of MLB’s Brewers, since arriving four seasons ago. He regularly speaks at regional events discussing how to source food locally for 45.000 fans and added an on-property biodigester — during its 2018 test phase it diverted over 28,000 lbs. of waste from the landfill. Chef Seth also works with children on their “Roots for the Home Team” farm-to-stadium program and was instrumental in building the on-property gardens at the 18 year-old ballpark, where produce is harvested to serve the team and fans.During the 2018 football season, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Zero Waste Program diverted more than 91 percent of the 293 tons of waste generated at the stadium and achieved zero waste during 14 of the 17 football game days during the season. The Coliseum, which hosts USC football and the LA Rams of the NFL, until the latter moves into its new home in 2020, uses its zero-waste program and annual Green Game as an engagement platform to educate fans about recycling, composting, and sustainability.Sticking with diversion, NC State University’s Zero Waste Wolfpack (ZWW) program has engaged students and fans to reduce waste at athletic events. Since its launch in 2015, the diversion rate inside Carter-Finley Stadium, home of NC State football, has improved from 18 percent to 44 percent in 2018. But ZWW goes beyond football: Last year, more than 18,000 fans at every men’s and women’s soccer match and thousands of fans attending home track and field events were able to recycle, compost, and engage with ZWW volunteers.Pocono Organics is a 90-acre organic farm located in Long Pond, PA that grows a number of regenerative crops including fruits, vegetables, grains, herbs, potatoes, and greens. When fully operational, the farm will draw power from the 25-acre 3MW solar farm that also powers its sister company, Pocono Raceway. Pocono Organics has developed the first-ever “Farm-to-Track” program with Pocono Raceway. The raceway diverts 75 percent of event-weekend waste and sends its compostable waste to the farm. The farm uses the compost to grow organic foods, which in turn will be served at the raceway.The San Francisco Giants’ Oracle Park (formerly AT&T Park) earned LEED Platinum Certification in 2019. The club was able to move up from LEED Gold (achieved in 2014) to Platinum in part by installing or investing in:

• LED field lights (55 percent energy reduction)
• A new field irrigation system (reduced water usage by more than 50 percent)
• Renewable energy credits (offset 50 percent of their energy use)

2019 saw the Seattle Sounders FC commit to carbon neutrality, becoming the first professional franchise of the five major leagues (MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL and NHL) to do so. The pledge, well-received by fans and the broader community alike, is not a one-off: The club has guaranteed to remain carbon neutral in perpetuity.The Banff Marathon takes place annually in beautiful Banff National Park in Alberta where it hosts more than 10,000 participants over a series of activities spanning three days. Since the inaugural race in 2014, in partnership with SustainDriven, event organizers have continuously worked to decrease its environmental footprint and mitigate those environmental impacts it cannot eliminate. The green highlight of the 2018 event was its incredible 100 percent waste diversion rate. You read that right: No waste was sent to landfill! A robust education program and “Sustainability Village” that engaged runners, sponsors, volunteers, staff, vendors, media, and spectators certainly helped.Last but certainly not least, University of Texas (Austin) Athletics created a strategy for all UT athletic events to achieve zero waste by 2020. They are getting close at their crown jewel, Longhorns football: The athletics department closed in on the 90 percent diversion rate threshold needed to claim zero waste, reaching 76 percent diversion at one home game last season at the 100,000-seat Darrell K. Royal Memorial Stadium. To get there, 900-ish volunteers donated 2,700 hours of time, with their actions reaching more than 600,000 fans. Looking ahead to the 2019 season, GSB predicts that the Longhorns, ranked #6 in the Sporting News preseason poll, will make it to the College Football Playoff semifinals and the athletics department will get to zero waste a year ahead of schedule.