Greening America’s Past Time: How the Cardinals are Paving the Nation’s Route to Economic and Environmental Sustainability

It is something often connoted with American heritage; indeed, it is a perennial past time. For more reasons than one, baseball represents several character traits of the United States. From the both the outfield and infield of time past, national heroes have emerged to dispel dejection during America’s most-enduring hardships. Recently, however, the sports industry has become a shepherd of the burgeoning emphasis society is beginning to place on environmental stewardship. So even if you are not generally enthusiastic about competitive sports, this new facet of the sports industry should peak your interest. In a way, it highlights the need to address an issue that goes far beyond the confines of a stadium. To this end, the Cardinals exemplify the transition on which leading sports organizations are focusing: it is known as “greening the game.”

Along with many corporate and business endeavors, the sports industry has begun to advance what can be called corporate sustainability – a new aspect in public relations that stresses the importance of understanding and, in turn, mitigating environmental degradation. To be sure, very few organizations have come close to completely ameliorating their respective environmental impacts, and some continue business as usual. The ‘dirty energy’ collective comes to mind in this respect. The Cardinals organization, for example, is heavily reliant on Peabody Energy’s “clean coal” technology (I think we can all agree that clean coal is an oxymoron). That said, the Cardinals should be commended for their efforts to green the industry. Even the White House thinks so.

Late this summer, President Obama’s staff at the White House Council on Environmental Quality bestowed the Cardinals and several other sports organizations with an award that placed them at the top-of-the-stack regarding their sustainability efforts. Specifically, the event was aimed at promulgating the economic and environmental benefits derived from the rapidly-expanding green industry. Between discussion panels that included senior administration officials, league, team and supply-chain representatives, the Cardinals elucidated on the strides made with their environmental programs (see break-out diagrams).

New Turf: Laying the Groundwork for the Future

According to the Green Sports Alliance, The Cardinals are committed to showing that a franchise can be successful both on the field and in the operation of its ballpark. Partnered with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) Sports Greening Project since 2008, the Cardinals have developed a comprehensive strategy for efficient stadium operations through their “4 a Greener Game” program. Furthermore, the Cardinals have approached this initiative with an emphasis on the need for community-wide education and collaboration.

If you have attended a Cards home game in the last few years, you may have noticed the somewhat-awkward, somewhat out-of-place group of volunteers known as the Green Team. Wearing neon colored shirts, these volunteers walk down the aisles of the seating bowl in-between innings and collect recyclables from fans while also promoting the use of recycling receptacles that are found all around Busch. What’s more, the Green Team enjoys free access to the game (you should apply to volunteer). Another example is the Ovie Mughelli Foundation, which aims to help educate children about how their environment affects them. Mughelli, who is a fullback for the Rams, helps area children have the opportunity to work with leaders across sectors who share the goal of educating Americans about integrating sustainable practices into one’s daily routine.

According to Mughelli, “With the promotion of practical lifestyle changes within our everyday communities, we have encouraged people to champion actions that keep their communities healthy . . . [this includes] fun activities that combine sports with environmental education. Most importantly [the group] strives to foster leadership in the next generation to build a green movement that addresses their needs and concerns.”

By putting wisdom into action within the purview of the public’s eye and by encouraging individuals and communities to cogitate on the benefits of environmental stewardship, the Cardinals and other leading sports organizations have, in a way, birthed a robust transition to a new, post-materialist ideal: the future belongs to those not yet born.

Following the ‘Green-Brick’ Road to an Emerald Future?

All told, the Cardinals have invested several hundred thousand dollars in environmental stewardship and are saving roughly the same amount each year. Not only are they enjoying a social return on investment but also are reaping the cost-saving benefits of an emerging infant industry; one that is slowly-but-surely reaching the distinction of an economy of scale. While it will be quite sometime before our nation derives all its energy from wind and solar farms – and if that will ever happen, one cannot possibly know – organizations like the Cardinals are leading the way to feasible and impactful environmental stewardship that everyone should and easily can embrace. One cannot help thinking that there is no better industry to do so given baseball’s legacy as the proverbial national past time. Indeed, it appears that sports organizations across the board are guiding our country into a new generation of environmental stewardship. In a sense, participating sports organizations like these are borrowing from Socialization theory much in the way they did when ending segregation on the field many decades ago. In other words, by bringing awareness and involving the community in this ‘transition’ of sorts, they are fostering a shared ideal – and at that, an ideal worth sharing.

Some Facts and Figures:

The team is a third of the way through executing their list of energy-efficient measures, with plans to complete them all. Here are some of the highlights:

• LED lighting upgrades: The Cardinals have replaced more than 1,000 traditional spotlights and floodlights with LED lamps to cut lighting power demand in several areas around the ballpark by 90 percent.
• Electrical substation ventilation: The team implemented a ventilation control scheme in electrical rooms to eliminate the year-round use of the equivalent of a hefty 100-ton air conditioner.
• HVAC efficiency: The Cardinals installed smaller, dedicated cooling systems for the scoreboard control room and video coaching room. These rooms were previously cooled by very large HVAC units better suited for larger areas during peak times. The larger units are now only used during game times.    
• Steam plant upgrade: As a result of the energy team changing the operation and controls on pumps and the installation of a new heat exchanger, the steam plant is now able to recover heat from waste condensate (from the system that brings hot water to the showers and HVAC systems). This reduces the amount of heat they need to generate for other applications, and eliminates the need for pumping 5 million gallons of cooling water.