January 18th, 2008 · 1 Comment

By Harriet Blake

The NFL’s Jack Groh sees green as the Super Bowl approaches. But it’s the greening of the Super Bowl that matters to Groh, not the money the annual football extravaganza generates.

For the past 15 years, Groh has been director of the Environmental Program for the
National Football League, which comes up with green initiatives for the league. The league’s main focus each year is the much-anticipated final season match up.

Groh, who used to be with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Clean City Coalition, has spent the last year preparing for the February 3 showdown in Phoenix.

“In any given year, roughly 150,000 people come to the Super Bowl city,” Groh says. “An influx of that many people affects the transportation in that city. For the Super Bowl, we are focusing two things: transportation and energy usage.”

After huddling with scientists and analysts, Groh’s team estimated that approximately 350 tons of greenhouse gases would be emitted by the use of additional vehicles during Super Bowl week. They also deduced that another 150 tons would be generated at the NFL’s two main events – the NFL Experience (a fan-focused affair) and the stadium where the Super Bowl takes place. (“We didn’t worry about the hotels, because they would be filled regardless of whether a Super Bowl was happening,” says Groh.)

To offset these 500 tons of greenhouse gas, the NFL is taking a two-pronged approach.

Groh consulted the renewable energy group, the Salt River Project. “Basically, all the electricity designated for the NFL Experience and the stadium will be wind, solar and thermal electricity.” There is some additional cost to do this, Groh admits, but it’s not astronomical. He didn’t give an exact amount, but it’s “not in the millions or tens of thousands, more like several thousand dollars.”

As for the remaining 350 tons of greenhouse gas generated by increased transportation, the NFL is planting trees – lots of them. Most environmentalists say that over its lifetime, an acre of new forest offsets about 75 tons of greenhouse gases. The concept, of course, is that the trees absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.

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