The NBA’s Wide-Reaching Influence
For three years running HOOPSWORLD has done an in-depth study of the NBA’s Green initiative, which began when commissioner David Stern announced that it would be one of his highest priorities at his annual All-Star address three seasons ago. We were more than a little skeptical, as people in high places often make broad statements about socially responsible activities. We wanted to see exactly what the NBA was doing, and how seriously they took the Green initiative. Well, true to his word, David Stern has put his staff to work finding ways to reduce the NBA’s environmental footprint, and while there is still plenty of work to do, great strides have been made again this season.
"Thanks to great guidance from the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), the NBA and our teams continue to implement new measures to reduce energy consumption and waste throughout all of our business areas," says NBA Executive Vice President of Social Responsibility and Player Programs Kathleen Behrens. "NBA Green Week highlights the importance of environmental protection while encouraging fans to do their part by incorporating green habits into their daily lives."
It starts at the league level, where the NBA offices in New York have undergone renovations to make the facility more green-friendly. Behrens tells HOOPSWORLD it all starts with the little things.
"We have an ongoing commitment to energy conservation in the league offices. We’ve done some renovations on some of our floors, we’ve changed to more energy efficient vending machines, we’re using new kinds of light bulbs, we have light sensors in certain places that aren’t occupied all the time so they’re not lit all the time and that has made a big difference. We have recycled products in our cafeteria. We also continue to share tips with our own employees, as we do with our fans, things that everyone can do to be a little bit greener. There are small things, too. It’s not just about making one change and then leave the playing field, so to speak. We want to continue to make improvements, so remind our employees to turn the lights off, to unplug chargers when they devices aren’t charging because that uses energy, making sure computers are off, being mindful of ways to recycle better, trying to re-use products, print on both sides of the paper – those kinds of small things can really add up. We are really making an ongoing and concerted effort to communicate to our employees and our fans that everyone can do something in this area and small steps can add up when everyone is committed to it. We’re not perfect in this regard, but we want to make a commitment to making improvements in our offices, in our buildings, in our training facilities, in how we operate and conduct events and making sure we share that information with our partners, our vendors and our fans."
"One of the things that has been fun to see is a number of our teams doing events with their employees and players out in the community. Oklahoma City did a great community park clean-up the other day with all of their employees. This isn’t just about the players on the court, it’s about an organizational commitment. The Dallas Mavericks have a great program called ‘Guard The Planet,’ the Toronto Raptors had a big Green Night last week, and the Houston Rockets have also made a big commitment to Green Week initiatives. It’s about everyone getting out and feeding off of the energy, no pun intended, of everyone’s shared commitment here is what we’re trying to accomplish. We’re seeing teams with an ongoing commitment, not just through Green Week, but an ongoing organizational commitment to reducing their environmental footprint."
Later in the week we’ll be talking with the Orlando Magic about their new arena – Amway Center – and the work that went into getting it LEED Certified. Behrens was there for a recent game and was impressed with what she saw.
"I’m very impressed with that building and they made a great commitment from the start to really make that facility as green as possible. I know the team is planning an announcement for tomorrow or Thursday and all indications are that they will be Gold LEED Certified, but they want to make the announcement themselves. Regardless, they made a great statement with that facility and all of our arenas so far – Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Portland, Los Angeles – have really made a commitment. One of the things we love about the LEED Certification is that it really kind of forces ongoing change and improvements to keep the certification intact. It’s a real commitment on the part of the teams and the arenas, so we think it’s really terrific."
Being more environmentally aware is important, but as we all know, dollars are a more powerful force in the business world. The great thing is, going Green isn’t just the right thing to do for the environment, it’s also the smart business move.
"I don’t have an exact number to give you, but we certainly know that in the buildings that have made major renovations they are not only saving energy, but also saving money," says Behrens. "We are working in partnership with the NRDC on a better tracking mechanism that can be used in our arenas and our arena operators to have a better tracking system so we know some of the savings that are being made and also so we know where the usage is heavy and where we can continue to make improvements. That’s something we’re rolling out to the teams in the next couple of weeks, is to provide a better metric regarding not only how we’re operating more efficiently as a business, but also how we’re being more socially responsible in this area. We’re not fully there yet, which is why we have a long-term commitment to this. We continue to identify new ways of doing things and get shared learning from our teams and arenas and get guidance from the NRDC. We still have a lot of work to do."
The NRDC Is Impressed with the NBA’s Impact
"The NBA’s ability to use its standing in the global community to inform the marketplace and fans about the value of environmentally-intelligent practices is enormously valuable," Hershkowitz tells HOOPSWORLD. "There are financial barriers to sustainability and there are technical barriers, but there are also cultural barriers. By the NBA using its cultural influence to support the idea of environmental protection, it makes the issue very ordinary and mainstream and takes it out of the political realm. It turns it into good business practice and good community relations. That’s where this issue should be. It’s hard to imagine a more potentially valuable partner promoting the idea of environmental-intelligent business practice."
In trying to assess the NBA’s efforts on the Green front, it’s important to note that the league doesn’t control all of the variables. The NBA’s Green movement is an important step, but it’s only a first step.
"It’s important to remember that most of the energy that the NBA gets comes from power plants that they don’t own, from a utility grid that they did not set up," Hershkowitz explains. "Like most businesses across the country and all sports leagues, they are overwhelmingly reliant on coal and fossil fuels for their electricity. The NBA promoting the idea of solar panels, of energy efficiency, of wind power is using its influence to move the marketplace towards a carbon-reduced operation. That’s all it can do. In terms of using its efforts to promote the idea of energy efficiency and reduced carbon impact, the NBA is doing an enormous amount. That’s how they should be evaluated. The NBA’s efforts to promote solar panels, to promote the use of wind and to promote energy efficiency gets very high grades. There’s still a long way to go. Greening is a process, not a destination. There’s no way to just become Green. It’s an ongoing process of viewing your operation with environmental intelligence and with an eye towards reducing environmental impact."
One way to assess the impact of the NBA’s Green initiative is to see which other businesses are following suit. Sports leagues like the NFL and NHL are following in the footsteps of the NBA, as are other entertainment productions like the Grammy Awards and multiple Broadway theaters. They see the way the NBA is tackling this issue and they’re working to decrease their own carbon footprints.
"There’s no question that the NBA is taking the Green initiative very seriously," says Hershkowitz. "(Commissioner) David Stern, Kathleen Behrens, all of the people working with the NBA, there’s no question that they’re in it with both feet and they’re playing this game for real, and for good reason. Their fan base is young, and most basketball in the world is played outdoors. You can’t play basketball without a chemically-stable atmosphere or without clean water or clean air. Many of the environmental injustices disproportionately effect communities of color and low-income communities, and those are of very great importance to the NBA’s agenda. We’re seeing the league’s facilities being retrofitted, arenas are being LEED certified, teams are doing fan education, environmental information is being distributed to fans, and remember, the NBA’s business is not the environment. It’s to win championships and generate revenue for owners and players, but they’re still embracing this cause whole-heartedly, so it’s a very meaningful program. It’s an ongoing program, not something you accomplish in a year or two. The geological pressures that we face are the result of hundreds of years of environmentally troublesome choices by millions of businesses and now need to be corrected by millions of businesses. The NBA is definitely doing its part."
Make no mistake, however, there is still much work to be done, and more drastic measures are needed if we’re to reduce the dangers associated with global climate change.
"The large trends are of great concern," Hershkowitz admits. "We have 90 million tons of global warming pollution being released into the atmosphere every day. We’re talking about some big numbers and problems that are very difficult to resolve. It’s really incumbent on every sector and every business to do what it can. The scientists are telling us that we don’t have a lot of time. The politicians are telling us that they really don’t want to act, so it’s really incumbent upon the private sector to take responsibility for correcting the problem. Even if we had legislation on this issue, the private sector would have to take responsibility for helping with this problem. Private sector interests like the NBA, which is so influential in the marketplace, impacts things like concessionaires, clothing, millions of fans, thousands of events every year – it’s big business. Having a big business like the NBA say they can incorporate environmental intelligence into our business is hugely influential."
Orlando’s Amway Arena Achieves Gold Certification
We bring our story to a conclusion with a look at what the Amway Center in Orlando has done to achieve Gold LEED certification for their new facility. For more information on the LEED certification process, link here! For the Magic, the decision to earn LEED certification was made at a very early stage.
"We actually decided that we wanted to achieve LEED certification before we even put the first shovel in the ground on the building," Orlando Magic President Alex Martins tells HOOPSWORLD. "Our goal was to achieve baseline LEED certification, but as we went through the process and as we continued to explore the opportunities through the certification, it became clear that we had the opportunity to strive for Silver and potentially even Gold LEED certification. Fortunately, through the work of our architects and construction team we’re able to achieve that Gold certification."
LEED certification is challenging, but achieving Gold certification takes a concerted effort on the part of everyone involved in the construction of a new facility, as Martins explains:
{AUTHOR_BOX}"It’s certainly a challenge. You have to have a clear plan in place, it’s not something that can happen by accident and you can’t try to achieve it halfway through the process. From that very first shovel in the ground we achieved certification points with things like recycling unused construction materials and making sure that we weren’t moving any of the dirt or debris to a landfill. From the very beginning we were achieving LEED points from the start of the construction. Then, as we planned for materials in the building, we planned on things like recycled materials for our flooring and lower-emission paint for the walls and things like that. It’s a challenge to achieve Gold LEED certification and it’s a process that has to be in place from the onset if you’re going to achieve that kind of status."
The Amway Center certification is just one part of a bigger effort taking place in Central Florida, where the City of Orlando is planning to become one of the top ten cities in the country in terms of being Green.
"We believe this is an important issue for Central Florida," says Martins. "We have a mayor here in Buddy Dyer who has made it a priority for the city. He has set the goal for us to be a top ten city in terms of being Green and reducing our carbon footprint, even to the extent that we are going to have electric charging stations for cars throughout the city beginning later this year and our Orlando Utilities Commission is one of the leaders nationwide that has focused on sustainability. Their brand-new headquarters is LEED certified, so it’s definitely a goal of our community to be one of the top ten Green cities in America."
The best part of all of this Green talk is that it’s not only the socially-responsible course of action, it’s also the smart business move to make sure facilities are operating at a high rate of energy efficiency.
"The building itself is operated by the City of Orlando, and clearly the work that we’ve done here with LEED certification is going to make the building operate more efficiently for them," Martins explains. "For example, the building, from a square footage standpoint, is three times the size of the old Amway Arena and it will actually use less water and thus be more financially efficient for the city than the old facility. Things like the low-flow water fixtures in the restroom, we installed a cistern in our system and it collects all the rain water for irrigation of the perimeter of the building and thus no other additional water is necessary to irritate all of the landscaping around the building – from that standpoint along the city of going to save dollars. We’ll also save from an electric standpoint with things like energy-efficient light bulbs through the entire building and light fixtures that automatically turn off when people are not in rooms throughout the building. All of these elements make the building much more efficient and thus the city will spend less money on energy consumption."
Achieving Gold LEED certification is an impressive accomplishment for Orlando’s Amway Center, but it’s not the end of the story. They have to work to maintain that standing by replacing energy efficient light bulbs with energy efficient light bulbs, but using eco-friendly cleaning materials as they clean the building on a daily basis, and continuing to focus on the reduction of the building’s carbon footprint as new technologies become available. It’s not an easy task, which makes it all the more impressive that NBA facilities like the Amway Center are looking to lead the way in this effort.
For more information on the NBA’s Green Initiative, which extends well beyond the scope of the Green Week event, please visit their official site: NBA.COM/GREEN
Loading ...
