An enormous amount of energy is used for big events like the Super Bowl, as tens of thousands of people travel to attend the event, and hotels, stadiums and other facilities ramp up their energy use to accommodate the crowds. This year’s Super Bowl, however, promises to tread more lightly, thanks to a partnership between C2ES, Entergy and the Super Bowl XLVII Host Committee.
As part of our larger “Geaux Green” initiative aimed at reducing the environmental impact of the Super Bowl, Entergy will offset emissions associated with Super Bowl-related air travel and facility use in New Orleans (including the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center) and team hotels. Entergy will also offset emissions related to travel to and from the Super Bowl by the players, coaches, cheerleaders and front office staff from the two teams.
In addition, fans visiting the Geaux Green website can fill in their Super Bowl travel details in an easy-to-use calculator that will tell them the carbon emissions associated with their trip to the big game. Then, they can select how much of their travel they want to offset (starting at $5) and choose a carbon-reducing project to receive their offset dollars. Entergy will match all fan offset purchases dollar for dollar.
The offset projects include: a landfill gas collection project in Denton, Texas; a forest conservation initiative in the heart of California’s redwood region; and an effort to capture methane from livestock manure on a 3,000-cow dairy farm in central Michigan. All three projects have been certified to deliver the promised greenhouse gas reductions by the Climate Action Reserve.
The Geaux Green website also is home to an environment-themed game for football fans, who can make pledges to take simple steps to reduce their energy use and environmental impact in the coming year. Entergy has agreed to match the pledged carbon reductions of all Geaux Green game players, and one lucky participant has already won a Super Bowl XLVII Prize Pack, including two tickets to the game.
In all, Entergy estimates that its offset purchases related to the Super Bowl will yield more than 26 million pounds of avoided greenhouse gas emissions. That’s something everyone can cheer about