Super Bowl Goes Green

Okay, I’ll admit it: I don’t follow football. However, I do follow green news, and the Super Bowl is big green news.

Jack Groh, Director of the NFL’s Environmental Program is spearheading a carbon neutral strategy for this year’s big event. Using the purchase of Renewable Energy Credits (REC’s) in addition to planting thousands of trees in Arizona to indirectly neutralize the event’s carbon footprint (including a 3,000 vehicle ground transportation fleet), organizers anticipate a carbon neutral event.

The Super Bowl’s anticipated carbon footprint was calculated based on the impact of the event itself, excluding such carbon contributers as the hundreds of thousands of fans who will be traveling (ostensibly from all corners of the country) to Arizona for the annual spectacle of spandex, which begs the question: For how much of an event’s carbon footprint are the organizers responsible? (And why doesn’t spandex at 30 mph get people as excited as stop-and-go grunting spandex?)

In this case, if the Super Bowl didn’t exist, these thousands of fans wouldn’t be emitting carbon to travel to Arizona, so in a sense, one could argue that the organizers are responsible for inciting this spike in carbon emissions. On the other hand, one could argue that it’s up to the individual fans to take responsibility for their own travel emissions to and from the event.

So where do you stand? How much responsibility ought to be borne by the organizers and event planners? Should they be offering greener travel alternatives?

I’m one for personal accountability in general, and frankly I think it’s an excellent step forward in environmental awareness for an event of this size to set a good example of social responsibility. I only hope that their actions inspire some personal accountability in those fans attending the festivities. Do I think the organizers can do better? Absolutely, and I think they will. They’re moving in the right direction, which is a laudable effort. And maybe next year, they’ll reconsider the REC’s and instead invest in Verified Emissions Reductions (VER’s).

From the horse’s mouth:

http://www.forbes.com/home/business/2007/01/19/super-bowl-green-sports-biz-cz_ad_0119green.html