The Greenest Super Bowl Ever?

broncos, giants, Judith Enck, metlife stadium, New York, NFL, Region 2, seahawks, super bowl 1 Comment

Everything about the Super Bowl is big – the athletes, the media coverage, the prices for hotels. It’s also a big opportunity to help the environment by using as little energy as possible. The NFL and MetLife Stadium in New Jersey have seized the opportunity by making this the greenest Super Bowl ever.

MetLife Stadium, home of the New York Jets and the New York Giants – and host to this year’s Super Bowl – is a model of green design. It is the most energy-efficient football stadium in the US, according to the Alliance to Save Energy.

And EPA has been involved from the very beginning. While the stadium was being built, EPA signed a memorandum of understanding with the stadium’s owner outlining a plan to build and operate the new stadium as a green building.

The Super Bowl wouldn’t be the Super Bowl without food, and the NFL and MetLife Stadium are making sure that leftover food doesn’t go to waste. The NFL plans to donate unused food to local soup kitchens, shelters and churches, which will feed the hungry while keeping food waste from being shipped to landfills and incinerators.

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Aug 9, 2013

Small Business Innovation is Mushrooming

Ecovative, Judith Enck, mycelium, New York, Pacific Garbage Patch, polystyrene foam, Region 2, Small Business Innovation Research, Solid Waste and Emergency Response, styrene, waste 1 Comment

Sometimes I worry that one of the enduring manmade wonders of our time will be the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. You know the Garbage Patch – the huge concentration of marine debris (mostly plastics) floating in the Pacific Ocean. It may still be there centuries from now. I wonder if a thousand years from now, tourists will visit the Garbage Patch the way we do the Roman Coliseum or the Pyramids. They’ll take pictures and stand there with their mouths agape wondering “how could they let this happen?”

Personally, I’m hopeful we can reduce the “greatness” of the garbage patch – and solve many of our other waste disposal problems – by reducing packaging or at least making it more sustainable.

Wine packaging made from mushroom mycelium by Ecovative Design