Reds Attempting to Reduce Carbon Footprint
You’ll rarely hear me praising a division rival on SvS, but I must give kudos to the Cincinnati Reds for committing to having a more environmentally friendly ballpark. Will Weiss over at Baseball Prospectus has written a great article on this. Access to the article requires a BP premium subscription, so I’ve reprinted an excerpt for those of you who don’t have access:
The Reds are striving to become the first team to be fully green in its ballpark operations. The organization considers itself as a steward of the Cincinnati community, and has considered green measures and put them into practice ever since Great American Ballpark opened in 2003, largely due to the foresight of Declan Mullin, the team’s vice president of ballpark operations. Prior to assuming his post in Cincinnati, Mullin worked for Spectacor Management Group, where one of his primary responsibilities was performing energy audits and making suggestions to help SMG’s arena operators run their facilities more efficiently.At Great American Ballpark, high-efficiency lighting illuminates all parts of the stadium, from the structures that light the field to the internal office areas. In addition, a computerized motherboard regulates the ballpark’s lighting system. At various points during a game, the unit will recognize areas in greatest need of either heating or cooling (luxury boxes, team clubhouses), and transfer power to that area from an area of the stadium that doesn’t exhaust as much power. During postgame cleanup, stadium lights are programmed to shut off on a timed basis, contingent upon the area of the stadium that is active.
Most recently, as reported in this space, the Reds have designated days when the team purchases carbon credits to offset the ballpark’s emissions. To date, Opening Day and Earth Day have been the only two days the Reds have purchased the credits. More purchasing days will be scheduled during the season.
Not knowing if the original article addresses this, the biggest CO2 impact in pro sports is probably the travel. On May 5, the Vancouver Sun was guest-edited by David Suzuki (a prominent Canadian environmentalist) and the front page of the sports section featured a road-trip-by-road-trip accounting of all the miles the Vancouver Canucks logged over the last season. In the end, it adds up to a lot of carbon.
Comment by brix — May 14, 2007 @ 4:04 pm
Oh yeah, the biggest environmental factor has gotta be the travel, especially in baseball, where there are so many games. The good thing about baseball is that there are three and four game series, so the teams are traveling (at most) two times a week, rather than three or four times a week (at most). Also, the unbalanced schedule makes for more intra-divisional travel (and therefore shorter trips). In the NHL and NBA, you might have a game in Seattle one night, a game in Miami two nights later, and a game in Oakland the night after that. The problem is that you can’t really reduce the amount of travel that any pro baseball team is going to do. Obviously there are ways baseball could make the travel more efficient (getting hybrid buses for the shorter trips, hiring more fuel-efficient airplanes for the longer ones). But I wonder if there is anything baseball could do in terms of scheduling to make travel more efficient?
Comment by Taft — May 14, 2007 @ 4:17 pm
So here’s a thought for, say, the Cubs. Amtrak runs regular passenger service to Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Detroit. What would it cost the Cubs to buy their own railcar (or two) and have Amtrak hook it on to one of their trains? Definitely be very cool, if nothing else.
Comment by brix — May 16, 2007 @ 10:49 am
If the Cubs are anything like the Nationals/O’s, they probably take a bus or drive themselves to the Milwaukee game, right? Certainly running a hybrid bus or some other such “green” endeavor would be smart.
The Sox would benefit the most from this sort of thing, I think. Amtrak runs regular service to all the AL Central cities and if Amtrack would run an Acela line there, it would be just as fast as flying. The problem is that those Acela lines probably aren’t very popular.
I know they’re not really that helpful (though something is always better than nothing), I think buying carbon credits is the best any MLB team is going to do in regards to travel. Private flight is the preferred way of travel for professional athletes and the nature of their schedules.
Comment by R.J. — May 16, 2007 @ 10:58 am
Brix: I love the Cubs Amtrak train idea.
Ross: The Cubs definitely bus it to Milwaukee, and may even do the bus for St. Louis. Speaking from a purely selfish standpoint, I’d love to see a midwestern Acela line that would connect Detroit/Chicago/Milwaukee/St. Louis…. but I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon.
Comment by Taft — May 16, 2007 @ 2:38 pm