With around 100 million viewers per match, the NBA is one of the best platforms to facilitate social change. The National Basketball Association is constantly working on projects that will educate fans and teams about being more sustainable and inspire them to make a change.
The NBA itself is working closely with most of the teams in the league and the results are inevitable.
Each team in the NBA plays 82 games, which means that the carbon footprint of this sport can fill out a very large shoe. Therefore, encouraging teams to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly can spark a chain reaction where other sports and fans can join the go-green journey.
As we mentioned earlier, most teams in the NBA league have the same mentality and made some huge changes in terms of reducing their carbon footprint. That’s why in today’s article we will highlight NBA teams ranked from most sustainable to worse.
Sacramento Kings
Sacramento Kings scored a massive slam-dunk in terms of sustainability by building the first indoor arena that has LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification.
Their new creation called the Golden 1 cost them around $560 million, and there are few incredible innovations that will take this sport to the next level. The arena is 100 percent solar-powered and uses 30% less energy than California regulations, and 45% less water.
With all the eco-friendly changes, the Golden 1 Center site reported a 2,000 tons reduction in greenhouse emissions.
The arena achieves this energy efficiency by clever engineering. The air conditioning and ventilation system designed by AECOM channels fresh air directly beneath the seats, and fans can control their temperature through an app on their phone.
Atlanta Hawks
We are now moving to Atlanta where we have the State Farm Arena known as the Philips Arena, home of the Atlanta Hawks. This arena is commonly used for concerts and other events that happen in the city and approximately 1.6 million guests go through their doors every year.
That’s why they decided to reduce their carbon footprint by making some changes to the arena that is more environmentally friendly. The State Farm Arena achieved LEED certification for upgrading existing buildings, maintenance and operation.
Atlanta Hawks use their popularity to educate millions of fans about all the benefits that come from going green. Currently, the arena is very energy-efficient and saves about 4.5 million kilowatt-hours annually.
Orlando Magic
Orlando Magic is using the many sunny days in Florida to make energy for their Amway Center arena. They also received a LEED gold certification for new construction ratings. The team is working hard to minimize their carbon footprint by reducing water waste and they are using 40% less water than an average NBA arena. This is around 1.3 million gallons of water that are saved each year.
Thanks to renewable energy, they successfully compensated 20% of their annual energy consumption.
Golden State Warriors
Apart from the team’s arena the Chase Center, which has received LEED certification the Golden State Warriors like to speak about themselves that they are a sustainable team that has many green initiatives every year.
They’ve partnered with many organizations and are working hard on making a change. Their recent initiative was primarily focused on recycling water bottles. Plastic takes from 20 to 500 years to decompose, and they were able to recycle 67,000 water bottles annually.
This is brilliant, but we definitely think that the Golden State Warriors can do much better in terms of being more sustainable.
Phoenix Suns
Despite their good result in the league, the Phoenix Suns don’t show too much effort in terms of reducing their carbon footprint. Back in 2012, they renovated their arena and added 966 solar panels. The cost of this project is estimated to be around $1.26 million and has serious environmental impacts.
Each year, the solar panels can produce 378,000 kWh of clean solar energy, which accounts for 20 Suns’ games. In other words, in around 50% of all home games, the U.S Airways Center is using clean energy.
Upgrading their stadium is a great start for reducing their carbon footprint, but since the change back in 2012, we’ve not seen more activity in terms of reducing their carbon footprint.
Yes, they participate in eco-activities, but they can do much more, especially since they are a very successful team in the NBA.
If you like the NBA and you want to know more interesting facts about basketball check out TwinSpires Edge article about the shortest players in the history of the league: edge.twinspires.com/nba/the-shortest-players-in-nba-history/
