Sunday, April 15, 2007

The greening of sport

Something I have been hearing more about lately: environmentally friendly sport. It makes sense--huge stadiums--to build and to operate--must contribute a great deal of waste and utilize tremendous amounts of energy. Sports not played in stadiums also leave an environmental footprint: golf courses have been cited for being not so ecologically sound.
In some sports, like surfing, athletes themselves are environmental activists because of their close relationship to the environment in which they play/compete/train.
The two pieces of news I have heard recently deal with making facilities more environmentally friendly. Billie Jean King, at the luncheon in Cleveland over a week ago said that one of her latest projects was taking World Team Tennis--which she founded in the 1970s--green, starting this summer. A March press release talks about the efforts which will focus on two teams and also the WTT champsionship.
Also contributing to the greening of sport is Wartburg College in Iowa which will be powering its brand new sports complex (for use by the college and town communities) using a wind turbine.
Sounds like some pretty good stuff is happening.

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