America's new pastime (hopefully...)

As baseball fans enter Safeco field tonight, to see the Seattle Mariners play the Baltimore Orioles, they will be not be going out to just any old ball game. They will be witnessing the first major league baseball game to be completely carbon neutral, down to the carbon emitted by the fans themselves en route to the stadium.

According to SPI, a local Seattle news source, the Mariners are shelling out $3,700 to purchase carbon offsets and 58,000 kilowatt hours worth of green credits. The offsets will come from a methane project (see February 27th post on this blog) in Pennsylvania and wind power in the Midwest, while the credits will go towards renewable energy projects closer to Seattle. The impetus behind making the game carbon neutral is to honor of Earth Day (which is today!).

A press release on the Mariners' website says that emissions due to both teams air travel, the teams' and umpires' hotel use, fans' ground transportation to the game, waste recycling and disposal from the game, and operation of Safeco today will amount to at least 230 short tons of CO2. They are partnering with Cedar Grove Composting to plan for the game's carbon neutrality, and contracting with NativeEnergy, Seattle City Light's Green Up! program, and the Stateline Wind Project.

This project is part of a greater effort by the Mariners to reduce the carbon footprint of the team as well as focus on recycling, composting and minimizing waste. Fans at the game will be given information on how to reduce their own carbon footprints, and there will also be recycling and composting bins throughout the stadium for the fans to responsibly dispose of their waste. Let's hope that in identifying America's favorite pastime, and a traditionally all-American sport, with green ethics and responsibility for the earth, Major League Baseball will get the average American motivated about composting, green energy, and reducing their carbon footprints.