By Dave Newport
“What's more important than who's going to be
the first black coach [in the NBA] is who's going to be the first black sports
editor of the New York Times.”
–NBA Legend Bill Russell
Sustainability could learn from The Great
Ones.
Wayne Gretzky
became the greatest hockey player ever because: “A good hockey player plays
where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.”
Basketball legend Bill
Russell took it even further. On the occasion of being named the NBA’s first
African American coach, he remarked: “What's
more important than who's going to be the first black coach [in the NBA] is
who's going to be the first black sports editor of the New York Times.”
Gretzky saw the
future of his game. Russell saw the future of society. So, what might
these Great Ones see for the future of campus sustainability?
Answer: sports provides campus
sustainability with its biggest stage.
Consider Scott
Jenkins.
Scott started out as an athlete--a very good one. He was a four-time All-American track star at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was a member of two NCAA Championship cross
country teams and a Big Ten champion at 10,000 meters.
Now Scott is the Vice
President for Operations with the Seattle Mariners, a Major League Baseball
(MLB) team. And like Gretzky and Russell,
Scott Jenkins has vision.
“The exciting thing for
sports businesses is that we’re very visible, public serving facilities,”
Jenkins said recently. “We touch a lot
of people through the team brand and the building brand. If we can use that
facet of our influence to promote sustainability and efficiency to the greater
public, we’re able to make great impact just by the sheer number of people we
touch.”
So Scott has infused
sustainability into every facet of the Mariners ball park; zero waste,
renewable energy, efficiencies, public transportation, etc. Before that, he did
the same thing for the Phillidelphia Eagles (professional football) and the
Milwaukee Brewers (MLB).
Not content with those
accomplishments, Scott worked to found the non-profit Green
Sports Alliance. The GSA has grown from nil to representing over 90
professional and a few collegiate teams and venues spread over 13 leagues in just over
two years.
Combined, these teams expose millions of fans to this thing
called sustainability—many of them for the first time. Millions.
Scott’s vision not only
provides sustainability with its biggest stage—but a powerful vehicle for social change.
Sadly, while there are some
notable bright spots (UC-Davis,
Ohio
State, etc), collegiate sports have largely lagged behind the pros, as
reported in recent
surveys by Pro
Green Sports.
Campus sustainability needs to get on the team; we’re missing an enourmous opportunity.
Campus sustainablity people
can find new friends and stakeholders in their sports fans. Sports fans
want to feel good about their campus and sustainability makes it so. In the
many games where we have conducted zero waste (ZW) operations (CU
started four years ago), I have never heard a fan complain. The only
comments we receive besides “thank you” are, “you aren’t going to stop doing
this are you? This isn’t just one and done greenwash?” Or, as one Florida alum
chided me years ago when we piloted ZW there: “This is good. Why haven’t we
been doing this right along?” Now, Florida has a major
sustainability commitment in athletics that goes deep into social equity. Go Gators!
Combining with campus athletics brings new
legitimacy and credibility to sustainability advocates too; they are seen as having
standing that reaches past traditional “green” stakeholders. And on the days
when our teams falter, we always win.
Some campuses have won the endorsements and
inclusion of their athletes as spokespersons for sustainability. I love that
UCLA—the nation’s most storied colligate basketball program (11 national titles!)—rolled
out several videos featuring their players and coaches touting their approach
to sustainability. These reach audiences that are difficult to integrate
into traditional sustainability efforts.
And when athletes get it, they run with it. Scott Jenkins is one
example.
Another is an All-Pro fullback for the St.
Louis Rams: Ovie
Mughelli. He headlined a
presentation at the White House in July talking about his approach to
sustainability: it’s about health, environment, and empowerment. It’s
everything he does. Like many athletes, Ovie runs a summer camp for low-income
kids in Atlanta. So after they run through tires, they sort recycling. After
they catch some balls, they turn off lights. After he’s done for the day, he
speaks about it at Boys Clubs and in the ‘hood. He makes videos. He blogs.
He runs a green foundation. He addresses
the players association. Ovie is on it. He sees where this is going. He is
doing what fullbacks do: create a path.
That path is a game changer.
The power of messages launched from the
world’s biggest stages is huge. Check out the Olympics. The Beijing
games had the largest global TV viewership of any event (4.7 billion, 70%
of the plant’s population).
This year’s London Olympics could top that--and are
on track to be the
most sustainable ever—by a margin, according
to World Wildlife Fund. That’s a
lot of folks getting the sustainability message.
“For the teams, it is about saving money, sure. But it is also
about that concept of social change, which is nothing new when it comes to
sports.
Big cultural issues have long been reflected on the playing fields
of our favorite teams. Look at Jackie Robinson breaking down racial barriers.
Title IX and Billie Jean King breaking down gender barriers. Muhammad Ali
taking a stand against the Vietnam War. Going green is different from the
social equality movements of the last century, but tackling climate change and
our addiction to foreign oil requires a mobilization to change that recalls
those earlier efforts.”
Where sustainability
is weak in social justice and diversity—sports is strong. The Olympics
brings together all nations and all cultures. It’s the peaceful melting pot we
yearn for. On
most campuses, diversity numbers are disproportionately buoyed by
student-athletes’ presence in the student body. Including athletes in
sustainability opens doors to campus populations traditionally
under-represented. Smart campus sustainability approaches also include social
justice initiatives with tentacles into sports like anti-sweat
shop programs for athletic garb that also play well with the students that
support athletics—and get STARS
points.
We talk a lot in the campus sustainability
business about “norming” and creating a “culture of sustainability” as central
to our work. Indeed, that’s the end game. To do that, by definition, we need
all campus communities on the team.
Yet, some of us, well, I will say it, have an
foul point of view about football and other major sports. And yes there is
plenty to disdain in college and professional athletics, no arguments. Just as
campus sustainability is weak on social justice and diversity, sports is weak
on economic equity. The profligate
amounts of money sports commands is simply obscene, no question. We all
have war stories about how legitimate campus priorities have been skewed by
athletics’ corpulent money machine. Indeed.
But the immense impact that comes with
changing such a mainstream institution as sports cannot be overstated. It
works, reaches billions—and it is fun. Working the games we are touching impressionable kids and
influential adults from all walks of life, every race, every culture, every
income, everybody. We are creating a new ethic—and new
jobs—in sports and new expectations everywhere. We are looking deep,
pulling for the fence, draining it from downtown, and all the other sports
clichés you can think of.
We are skating to where the puck is going to
be.
And, like the Great Ones, we are playing on
the planet’s biggest stage.
Game on!
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