Super Bowl XVLI: Greening Efforts Reduce Environmental Impact

Super Bowl Sunday, resplendent with fast food, beer, pyrotechnics and aging rock starts, is one of the sport’s calendars most extravagant events. In recent years, however, the Super Bowl has been making an effort to reduce its carbon footprint and Super Bowl XLVI was the greenest to date. The Super Bowl host committee worked hard to reduce emissions and green the surrounding communities in an effort to reduce its monumental environmental impact.

If this sounds like a tall order for an event that has to light up an enormous stadium with a rollback roof, provide food and drink and sports paraphernalia that fans can wave around before throwing in the bin, then you are right. To offset emissions from the enormous amount of electricity the stadium utilizes, 15 000 megawatt hours of renewable energy certificates were provided by Green Mountain Energy Company, a nearby wind farm and one of the nation’s oldest green energy providers. This is enough energy to power 25 million flat screen TVs for the duration of the game or allow 53.3 million households to microwave themselves a bowl of Queso cheese dip in preparation for the big game. The energy certificates will save 29 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere.

Not only will green energy power everything in the stadium from the lights to the scoreboard, but carbon offset measures will be taken to mitigate the emissions created by flying and driving the teams and support staff out to the event. The Green Mountain Energy Company is doing its bit too by donating a solar array to a local household in the Near East Side Legacy Project which aims to uplift this central city neighbourhood. “Green Mountain Energy Company has helped us reduce the overall environmental impact of Super Bowl activities,” said NFL Environmental Program Director Jack Groh. “Together, we have been able to expand the way we address greenhouse gas emissions and leave a permanent benefit to the host community.”

Ongoing efforts will see the planting of 1, 700 trees in urban areas in and around Indianapolis. This will help to reduce air pollution in the cities. Pepsi Cola is providing specially designed recycling bins at the venue to help recycle as much of the waste generated by the event as possible. Food recovery company, Second Helpings, will work to recover tens of thousands of pounds of leftover food from Super Bowl venues. The food is then re-prepared and distributed to over 60 social service organizations that use it to feed the hungry.

Tom Szaky of Treehugger calls the move to green the Super Bowl a “pleasant surprise”. He goes on to say: “I am an eco-skeptic, but I couldn’t help thinking to myself that this is something the NFL probably isn’t doing to gain new viewers. I suspect they’re doing it out of a larger sense of corporate responsibility.” Szaky also mentions the upcoming elections and the environmental impact these ‘ Super Bowl ‘ events have, making a call for all who have large events to follow the exemplary lead that Super Bowl XVLI has set.