Baseball officially began last weekend with the Dodgers sweeping the Diamondbacks in Australia. But, in the United States, Opening Day is less than a week away. Where half the teams will be dealing less with green grass and more with frozen fields.
Nonetheless, we will still be hearing the crack of the bats, highlights on Baseball Tonight, and more than likely another losing season for the Twins. However, the Twins have been winning when it comes to going green. Actually, all of Major League Baseball (MLB) is greening up their operations and stadiums.
In 2005, MLB became the first professional sport to spark a partnership with the Natural Resource Defence Council (NRDC). Together they have been pursuing to green up the sport through greening up: office operations, stadium operations, transportation to the games, energy usage, concession operations, recycling, and waste management. Since the partnership began in 2005 every MLB team has established environmental initiatives and are encouraged to share their efforts and successes with their environmental initiatives.
Some teams have really embraced greening up their operations and incorporated them into their stadiums or everyday operations. In 2007, the Cleveland Indians installed solar panels on their stadium becoming the first American League team to install alternative energy. They also reduced their energy consumption by using LED lighting in all their signs. According to the Department of Energy, Seattle Mariners and Washington Nationals both made strides in greening up their stadium. The Mariners reduced their energy consumption through adjusting lighting controls, weatherstripping, and upgrading controls on water heating. While the Washington Nationals became the first MLB stadium to get Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification because of their energy efficient lighting, air cooling, and green roof. The Minnesota Twins also earned LEED certification for their water saving plumbing, efficient lighting, and for their mass-transit transportation to the stadium.
MLB teams along with the NRDC are making strides in greening up the sport, and I don’t mean just by watering the grass, but through energy conservation, renewable energy, and in many other ways. The MLB is also an example that other sports leagues can look at when trying to green up their sport. Many of the greening initiatives baseball is incorporating into their stadiums could also be applied to homes. Practices such as switching incandescent light bulbs with CFL’s or LED lighting, weatherizing your home like Mariners did to their stadium, and in many other ways.
So next time you go to a baseball game look for all the ways your team is trying to green up their operations and maybe you could get ideas on what you can do to your own house or even your own local sports stadium.
If you want to find more information on what professional sports teams are doing to green up their operations click on this link.
