While the NBA’s annual Green Week has come to a close, this year the NBA Green organization launched a new initiative to make everyday Earth Day at NBA arenas to generate environmental awareness in a non-political way to basketball fans.
Throughout the fifth NBA Green Week (April 4-12,) the NBA partnered with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to highlight a variety of local and national greening projects, in-arena awareness nights, and hands-on service projects like tree planting. They have also partnered with Sprint in their Pledge to Recycle contest that continues through May 16, giving fans who recycle their old mobile devices an opportunity to win a grand-prize trip for two to the 2013 NBA Finals.
But NBA Green also kicked-off a new, long term initiative to become more environmentally responsible all year using a new environmental data system that will help all 30 NBA teams to track, analyze, and manage “environmental footprint” data related to their energy use, water consumption, waste generation, and paper procurement, among other environmental impacts. The NBA says the system “will help enhance the performance of NBA arenas nationwide for years to come, with benefits that far exceed the positive impact of the league’s annual Green Week.”
NBA is a member of the Green Sports Alliance, a cross-league initiative formed in 2010 by the NRDC to bring “sports organizations and environmental experts together to improve the environmental performance of sports facilities and operations.”
“The NBA’s commitment to reduce its ecological impact and to help educate basketball fans worldwide about the importance of environmental protection confirms why this league is regarded as one of the world’s most responsible sports organizations,” said NRDC Senior Scientist Allen Hershkowitz, who helped coordinated the organization’s green development.