NFL to Offset Super Bowl’s Carbon Footprint
The National Football League’s Environmental Program Director Jack Groh was a featured guest on NPR, where he discussed the league’s plans for making next month’s Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona a carbon neutral event.
Groh estimates that the Super Bowl annually produces approximately 500 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, primarily from energy use and transportation of NFL staff to and from the game.
University of Phoenix Stadium and the adjacent NFL theme park will be powered with wind, solar and geothermal energy, and the NFL will be planting thousands of trees to replace Northern Arizona forests blackened by wildfires. University of Phoenix Stadium already has an extensive recycling program set up for fans.
The NFL began offsetting carbon output at 2005’s Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville, making this the fourth year that offsets will be purchased. This plan currently only takes into account the NFL’s footprint, and does not address the impact of fans traveling to the game.
