Philadelphia Eagles Green Impact – New Efforts for 2010

Philly’s gearing up for the big game this weekend. It’ll be a particularly interesting battle as Sunday marks Donovan McNabb’s return to the Linc. I could go on about what the outcome of the game means for perception and morale. But, this is an environmental blog after all. So let’s talk green.

Where do the Eagles stand with their eco-efforts in 2010?

The ‘Eagles Forest’  is particularly noteworthy. In May 2008 the Eagles launched the project at Neshaminy State Park in Bensalem, PA. The goal of the program is to plant enough trees to off-set carbon emissions from game-day travel – for fans and players. The Eagles Forest contains more than 1,500 trees and shrubs, including over 150 trees that have been purchased by Eagles fans.

In 2009 the Eagles corporation planted 627 trees in Louisiana’s Lake Ophelia National Wildlife Refuge in Marksville. Lake Ophelia NWR was established in 1988 to preserve the floodplain ecosytem.

With the help of the Conservation Fund in ’08 and ’09 the Eagles offset 100% of the gases from the team’s travel through tree-planting. This includes travel to away games – by plane, bus, and train.

Fans can use this tool to learn how many trees they need to purchase in order to offset their own game-day travel.

Currently the Eagles are continuing work with Lake Ophelia’s NWR and working with the Audubon Society to save wildlife affected by the Gulf oil spill.

Other notable 2009 accomplishments include (but aren’t limited to):
•The Eagles launched a composting program at the end of 2009, capturing more than 25 tons of organic waste.
•100% of the Philadelphia Eagles football and corporate operations were powered by the sun and wind.
•By adding food waste composting to their recycling program, the NovaCare Complex is wasting even less.

Final thought in honor of recycling taken from the Eagles factoids page: Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours – Just about enough time to watch an Eagles game.

Read more about the Eagles eco-mission here.

Go Birds!

Posted by Beth