Reprinted with permission from The Associated Press/New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 22, 2007

Concrete gray and dirt brown are the overwhelming colors at the construction site of the Washington Nationals' ballpark. For a bit of contrast, there are eight red-and-black cranes towering above the busy scene near the banks of the polluted Anacostia River.

One year before the first pitch is thrown, the project manager, Mac Naeemi, stands on the concourse in his hard hat and beams at the mention of another color: green.

"I can't explain the feeling I have," Naeemi said. "It is magnificent. We come to work with passion. This is the first baseball park that is going to be green."

Take a short trip north along Interstate 95 to Philadelphia - in a hybrid car, perhaps - where Christina Lurie, the wife of the Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, has announced that the team will reimburse employees who buy their energy from windmills. The Eagles are one of the most environmentally friendly teams in pro sports, and they say their Go Green program has eliminated about 6.4 million pounds of greenhouse gases and recycled nearly 150 tons of paper, cardboard and beverage containers since it was started in 2003.

"It's definitely become a passion," Christina Lurie said. "I have children, and I worry about the planet. Is our world going to exist in 50 years? What kind of a world is it going to be?"

It will be a world with Super Bowl woods, if Jack Groh has anything to do with it. Next month, the N.F.L. is planting 500 native trees to help reclaim the Dinner Key Spoil Islands near Miami, part of the league's effort to negate the one million pounds of carbon dioxide it spewed into the atmosphere by putting on this year's Super Bowl.

"If you go out there in two or three years, instead of finding stinking, rotting landfills, you're going to find this beautiful chain of islands," said Groh, director of the league's environmental program. "So, could you go out there and wander among the N.F.L. trees? Yeah, you could. We've got other projects, but that's going to be one of the crowning jewels."

Some 600 solar panels are being installed at AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. The Great Lakes Loons beat them to it, with 168 panels erected in February to power the scoreboard at their minor league park in Midland, Mich.

Safeco Field in Seattle recycles about 97 percent of the plastic beer, water and soda bottles it sells and this year started a food waste recycling program that keeps even more trash out of landfills. The Indy Racing League's IndyCar Series will race this season on 100 percent ethanol.

Green long has been the color of sports because of the large amounts of money involved. Sports, though, can be a wasteful endeavor, from the millions of gallons of water used to keep golf courses green and ski resorts wrapped in artificial snow to the thousands of miles teams fly on road trips. Or the mounds of paper used to produce media guides, press releases and box scores. Or the fertilizers that keep fields green while potentially contaminating groundwater.

But a new shade of green is making its mark in the sporting world as teams, leagues and stadium-owning municipalities join the fight against global warming. Some are motivated by a desire to save the planet. Others see it as good public relations, or as a way to save money. Often, it's a combination of the three.

The new Nationals stadium takes going green to another level. The D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission plans to make the ballpark the first major pro sports venue in the country to earn LEED certification - which means it has to accumulate at least 26 points on the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design scorecard compiled by the United States Green Building Council. The Minnesota Twins' new park, projected to open in 2010, is also expected to be certified green.

"We're the nation's capital, where policies are set, laws are set, and it seems like it's appropriate for the new ballpark in the nation's capital to be the forerunner, to be the one who sets that bar," said Allen Y. Lew, the commission's chief executive.

During a recent tour of the Nationals' construction site, Naeemi talked about five sand filters - huge underground bunkers - that will purify water from the ballpark before it trickles into the Anacostia.

The ballpark will have low-flow plumbing fixtures that will save an estimated 3.6 million gallons of water a year. A minimum of 10 percent of the construction materials will be from recycled sources. An education program will encourage fans to recycle their trash. High-efficiency field lighting will use roughly 21 percent less energy than the lights at a typical ballpark. A subway station is about a block away, which will hopefully encourage people not to drive to the games. There are plans to plant vegetation on a portion of the roof to keep it cooler.

And it is all affordable. The green upgrades account for less than 1 percent of the $611 million ballpark budget.

"There are a lot of myths out there about green building costing a whole lot more," said Gwyn Jones of the local chapter of the Sierra Club, which has supported the project. "We didn't want the myths and the perceptions out there to detract from the goal, which was to make the stadium green."

The NFL spent even less making the Super Bowl green. The league salvaged unused supplies, recycled tons of materials, planned its Super Bowl trees and more - all on a budget of $2,500 because the league found local partners willing to chip in.

"This is the biggest single sporting event in the world every year," Groh said. "If we can find a way to make our event carbon-neutral and do it for 2,500 bucks, there goes the excuse for other people who say, 'Well, we would do this if it didn't cost so much money.'"

Groh would like to see more teams involved in the greening movement. But the N.F.L., the NBA, the NHL and Major League Baseball leave environmental policy up to their teams.

Lurie said the Eagles were planning round-table sessions at NFL meetings to share what they have learned.

"We can educate - that's definitely a role we can engage in," Lurie said. "Because our children and their future are our responsibility. Not just us, the Eagles, but the royal us. We can provide a unique platform from which to model civic behavior."