People think of basketball and they think of the NBA, the WNBA, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant,  March Madness and California native Monique Billings, number 25 and forward for the Los Angeles Sparks, to name a few. Although sustainability is not the first word that comes to mind when you think of the game, it is something that is creeping into the NBA’s vocabulary as well as their messaging. This month marks the first year anniversary of one of their newest environmental programs: Launched last April 2023, their Arena Sustainability Task Force has the aim of reducing waste, increasing recycling, and saving energy at their arenas. It’s notable and commendable too that there is a scientist leading their overall sustainability strategy and not a marketing manager.

Meet Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, the environmental scientist behind their efforts. He realized the NBA could reach more people than purely the science community alone. According to Dr. Herskowitz, less than 20% of adults in the United States follow science yet over 80% follow sports. So when former NBA commissioner David Stern and player programs president Kathy Behrens reached out to Dr. Herskowitz, to help them get the NBA on a path to sustainability  – he didn’t hesitate.  Making visual changes was key – “If we set up compost bins and recycling bins in the concourses of the venues, the fans understood that we were committed to environmental responsibility,” Hershkowitz said.

Now 10 arenas are certified in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system, an internationally recognised standard in sustainability globally meaning the arenas are specifically designed to be energy efficient.  The league has an eco-friendly academy in Senegal and a recycled glass court in Spain. NBA teams – the Milwaukee Bucks, Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings all participate in various Earth Day activations every year and the Miami Heat take part in the Beach Sweep at North Miami Beach to clean up trash. 

With a revenue during the 2022-2023 season alone of 10.58 billion USD it’s easy to dismiss this sort of growing commitment to sustainability with some cynicism but there have been achievements that are more than just savvy ‘green’ messaging.

Some Sustainability Success 

The NBA has managed to reduce the environmental impact of their team travel by changing the way they schedule games so that it limits the amount of times teams criss-cross the country.  For example, traveling teams will often be scheduled to play the Heat and the Magic, teams both based in Florida, on the same trip rather than flying out twice. It’s the same with the two LA based teams, the Clippers and the Lakers, and the Nets and Knicks in New York. This way the NBA can reduce their carbon footprint and stands a much better chance of halving it by  2030 which is their stated goal. In their 2022-2023 season, the NBA decreased their annual over-all miles traveled by 50,000 miles. While it’s not enough to save the planet – it’s a start!

Which is good – as reducing their carbon footprint – is also one of the goals they signed on for when the NBA signed the United Nations Climate Change Convention’s Sports for Climate Change Framework (UNCCC). 

What’s That?

The United Nations introduced the Sports for Climate Change Framework  in December of 2018 and it has five core principles that every team and league must follow if they sign on: understand systematic efforts to promote greater environmental responsibility, reduce overall climate impact, educate for climate action, promote sustainability and responsible consumption, and advocate for climate action through communication. 

Aside from reducing their carbon footprint with clever game scheduling, the NBA has also reduced their use of plastic bottles by 80% in their offices. They are now actively  conducting a thorough evaluation of all league events to figure out how they can work with their various partners to reduce impacts and offset unavoidable carbon emissions. 

What About the Fans? 

The NBA has some of the most famously fanatical fans in sports so can they leverage this loyalty to change fan behavior when it comes to sustainability? The NBA is trying to use their platform to educate their fans through NBA GREEN which raises awareness about the importance of doing right by the planet.

If they can get their ‘green messaging’ right they have the capacity to reach a lot of eyeballs globally, so it is clear why the UN has a sports strategy and must have wanted the NBA to sign onto it. In May 2019, the NBA league had 150 million followers across all social platforms and 1 billion people around the world watched the NBA Finals. It is the most popular sports league in China with 300 million people actively playing basketball there. 

In April 2023, the league had 32 billion video views across all NBA and NBA related accounts. With international followers making up more than 70% of the NBA’s social media followers, half of their audience is 25 and below. They even have K-pop star SUGA as an NBA Ambassador! 

It is clear that the NBA is actively catering to their younger audience and going green might appeal to that same demographic. We hope they are successful in turning their fans into green activists – here’s hoping!

The post Hoop Dreams: The NBA and Sustainability appeared first on Earth Day.

Next summer, the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games will take place on the Seine River in Paris, France. Previous Olympics have had a dramatic carbon footprint, as well as a dreadful impact on biodiversity. For instance, the last two summer Olympic games where held in Tokyo, Japan and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They released more than 2.7 million and 4.5 million tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere respectively. Each and every one of us witnesses the effect of global warming in our day-to-day life. We can ask ourselves what regulations will the Paris Olympic planning committee implement to reduce the environmental impact of arguably the most renowned sporting event on Earth? 

A recent change in the carbon narrative 

Initially, the planning committee pledged the Olympics will have a “positive carbon contribution”. That means more carbon will be captured or compensated than emitted. Apart from misleading the public to believe the Olympics’ carbon footprint was minimal, their assertion is also unrealistic. That is why the board has reevaluated its carbon budget and committed instead to cutting the carbon emissions of the event in half. 

The Olympics will have a lower impact than in previous years, but still a significant one. Indeed, the expected carbon budget consists of the emission of 1.58 million tons of CO2. Transportation accounts for the most important share of emissions (34%), followed by operations & logistics (26%), and constructions (25%). On the latter, substantial efforts have been made. Only one building will be made (the Olympic pool). Thanks to the reuse of existing sports facilities. 

Paris 2024 will be greener than previous Olympics, but there is still a lot to do 

There is a major issue with the current structure of accountability for carbon emissions at major sporting events, like the Olympics. The lack of transparency about the carbon assessment. The Olympic Committee, despite publicly expressing environmentally conscious governance and several designated bodies, is very reluctant about disclosing the details of the carbon assessment method.

To correct this, the carbon footprint analysis used for the 2024 Olympics is based on a new approach. It focuses on integrating carbon costs beforehand instead of doing a carbon assessment afterward. Organizers have also adopted the ARO approach (Avoid, Reduce, Offset), to refrain from jumping to compensation without making the first and more complicated step of not emitting carbon.

The “old” carbon assessment model compared to the new one adopted by Paris 2024:
Changing the model: from a post-Games assessment to a pre-Games target

Efforts compared to previous Olympics Games are praiseworthy and necessary. However, several problems remain and need to be tackled for future major sporting events to make sure the athletic community does its part in the fight against the climate crisis. 

How to move toward a greener Olympics? 

Looking forward, propositions for greener Olympics have been formulated by academics, sports supporters, organizers, as well as the athletes themselves. 

The first step would be to greatly downsize the event, inherently decreasing the ecological and material footprint by reducing the size and cost of the new infrastructure required. It will also cut down the transportation’s emissions, which accounts for a large share of an international event’s carbon footprint. Another step would be to rotate the Olympics among the same cities. By doing so, all necessary infrastructure will already be in place, and the Olympics happen at a lower cost, alongside minimal social and ecological disruption. 

Other ideas formulated to reduce Olympics’ carbon footprint include enforcing stronger accountability and transparency standards, and using only renewable sourced energies during the event. As an individual, the greener action you can do is renouncing to go in person. Indeed, with transportations accounting for the greatest share of emissions, it is better to watch the competition on your TV if you live too far from the hosting city and have to take the plane. 

In the fight against the climate crisis, athletes are both an inspiration and a solution. More and more of them are expressing their concerns about the environmental impact of the competitions they are participating in, and are increasingly conscious of their interconnection with global warming. Our Earth Day Campaign Athletes for the Earth aims at amplifying their voices and connecting athletic practices with environmental stewardship.

The post Paris 2024 Olympics: A Greenwashing Nightmare or a Genuine Effort to Save the Planet? appeared first on Earth Day.

“The reason is simple. I’m an athlete. Since I’ve been you know five, six years old, since I came out of the womb, I’ve been running, I’ve been playing I’ve been jumping, catching footballs, throwing baseballs. I love playing outside. My question is, Why aren’t more athletes involved? People say, Why are you involved? Why aren’t more athletes involved? We breathe more air than you guys. We drink more water than you guys. We play on the planet. We are always outside. We don’t want to be in the situation where we’re wearing gas masks to play the sport we love. We don’t want to be in a situation where we’re wondering, you know, back in my day I used to have green trees, I used to have clean air, I used to have clean water. We want to make sure and preserve that for the next generation. Me and my lovely wife and I had the opportunity to create the Ovie Mughelli Foundation because we realized that the kids who care the least about the environment are affected the most by the environment. We want to give them something where it connects to them. So we try to use sports as a way to be a catalyst to promote sustainability….”

Full speech below.

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