I love the Super Bowl don't you? I still have no idea what is going on down on the field, but it sure is fun to celebrate the day! The food, the drinks, the excitement of the game, it's all good right? Well obviously, a huge amount of energy is used for big events like the Super Bowl, and that means huge carbon emissions. Well this year, as tens of thousands of people travel to attend the event, and as hotels, stadiums and other facilities ramp up their energy use to accommodate the crowds, everyone will have the chance to leave a smaller footprint.
"Geaux Green" Partnership Powers Down Environmental Impact
As part of a larger “Geaux Green” initiative aimed at reducing the environmental impact of the Super Bowl, this year's Super Bowl is going green and treading softly through a partnership between C2ES, +Entergy and the Super Bowl XLVII Host Committee. Entergy will offset emissions associated with Super Bowl-related air travel and facility use in New Orleans (including the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center) and team hotels. Entergy will also offset emissions related to travel to and from the Super Bowl by the players, coaches, cheerleaders and front office staff from the two teams.
In addition, fans visiting the Geaux Green website can fill in their Super Bowl travel details in an easy-to-use calculator that will tell them the carbon emissions associated with their trip to the Super Bowl. They then can decide, starting at just $5, exactly how much of their travel they want to offset and choose a carbon-reducing project to receive their offset dollars. It gets even better because Entergy will match all offset purchases dollar for dollar. Nice move Entergy.The offset projects include: a landfill gas collection project in Denton, Texas; a forest conservation initiative in the heart of California’s redwood region; and an effort to capture methane from livestock manure on a 3,000-cow dairy farm in central Michigan. All three projects have been certified to deliver the promised greenhouse gas reductions by the Climate Action Reserve.
Something to Cheer About
You can help reduce the global footprint of the Super Bowl at home too! The Geaux Green website also offers an environmentally themed game for football fans, who can make pledges to take simple steps to reduce their energy use and environmental impact in the coming year. Entergy has agreed to match the pledged carbon reductions of all Geaux Green game players.
In all, Entergy estimates that its offset purchases related to the Super Bowl will yield more than 26 million pounds of avoided greenhouse gas emissions. Now that is most certainly something that everyone can cheer about.
Source: Center for Climate and Energy Solutions
Photo Sources: Bidding for Good, Geaux Green
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