Major League Baseball Joins the Green League
Major League Baseball and the Natural Resources Defense Council have created a Team Greening Program to support and coordinate the many environmentally sensitive practices now pursued by virtually every Major League Baseball Club.
"Baseball is a social institution with social responsibilities and caring for the environment is inextricably linked to all aspects of our game," said Baseball Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig. "Sound environmental practices make sense in every way and protect our natural resources for future generations of baseball fans."
The Team Greening Program will provide to each club an individualized NRDC Team Greening Advisor for Major League Baseball, which is a Web-based software tool featuring advice and resources for every aspect of a club's operations. This unprecedented program, more than two years in development, will expand on the industry's best practices, offering specific local advice concerning such topics as energy use, purchasing, concession operations, water use, recycling, and transportation.
"MLB's greening initiative is good for the environment and the bottom line," said Frances Beinecke, NRDC president. "Their work will save energy, reduce waste, and make the organization, the teams, and the stadiums all run more efficiently."
The program was developed through surveys that assessed the environmental practices in a number of operational areas, throughout the 2006 season. The surveys, sent to all 30 clubs, demonstrated a high level of interest in environmentally sensitive operating policies and creative implementation of sound policies that should be more widely recognized and shared throughout the industry.
"The commitment by our national pastime to enhance its ecological profile in a meaningful and public way marks a watershed in the history of baseball and the environmental movement," said Allen Hershkowitz, senior scientist, NRDC. "No other sporting institution has influenced American culture as much as baseball and the League is once again putting that influence to very good use."
The NRDC Team Greening Advisor aggregates the best practices of the clubs and includes such topics as:
• Adopting an official environmental policy,
• Incorporating environmental language into contracts, purchasing policies, and requests for proposals that specify preferences for environmentally sound products and services.
• Encouraging the use of renewable energy.
• Providing information about how to credibly offset the carbon emissions related to team and fan transportation.
• Using post-consumer recycled content paper for all paper products.
• Implementing paper reduction strategies in offices.
• Offsetting the environmental impact of up to half team and employee travel.
• Establishing a club eco-committee.