The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Zero Waste Weekend at Baseball, Softball home series
04.19.2017 | Texas Athletics, Bleed Orange. Live Green.
Texas Athletics continues to push sustainability practices with their "Bleed Orange, Live Green" campaign for Earth Day.
Earth Day, gameday and every day, Texas Athletics is committed to putting the principles of sustainability into practice. Texas Baseball and Texas Softball host the third annual Zero Waste Weekend in honor of Earth Day during each team's three-game home series April 21-23. "This special weekend was devised to bring awareness to sustainable practices focused on by The University of Texas and Texas Athletics," said Jeff Orth, Associate Athletics Director for Strategic Relations. "Zero Waste Weekend also encourages our fans to recycle and compost during the game as well as at home." Zero waste means diverting 90 percent of waste that would normally go to the landfill by either composting or recycling it. Last season's Zero Waste Weekend resulted in a 95.6% diversion rate at baseball and a 90.7% diversion rate at softball.
Since 2009, Texas Athletics has succeeded in establishing a bold sustainability program including significant changes in:
- Gameday event management and facilities (e.g., waste reduction through expanded recycling and composting infrastructure and outreach);
- Capital investments at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium (e.g., energy efficient stadium lighting and water-efficient ground cover); and
- Day-to-day operations (e.g., demand-side energy management).
Texas Athletics makes sustainability a priority in all endeavors and encourages fans to do their part to create a clean and sustainable gameday environment.
As part of its "Bleed Orange, Live Green" campaign sponsored by BASF, Coca-Cola, Fox 7 Austin and Republic Services, the Texas Athletics sustainability staff work hard promoting zero waste at all Texas Athletics events. This is done by working with concessionaire 1883 Provision Co. to source sustainable packaging, coordinating with facilities and operations staff, and recruiting volunteers to serve as the fan-education component. "These efforts are a critical step in helping to reach the campus-wide zero waste goal by 2020," said Lauren Lichterman, who runs the day-to-day sustainability operations for Texas Athletics.
With their distinctive green T-shirts, the BASF Sustainability Squad serves as the face of Texas Athletics' sustainability efforts to fans on game days. The Sustainability Squad started as an offshoot of the Campus Environmental Center's Tailgate Recycling Program in 2014 and has grown into a diverse group of student volunteers focused on educating fans about the basics of recycling and composting, explaining what UT's zero waste goal is, and monitoring the recycling and compost bins at venues to making sure waste is properly sorted.
Last season, the BASF Sustainability Squad was present at all six Texas Football home games and volunteered a total of 1,825 hours. The number of volunteers at each game steadily increased throughout the 2016 season, reaching an all-time high of over 90 at the Oct. 15 Sustainable Saturday game against Iowa State.
We hope you'll come out to the games this weekend and remember to make every day Earth Day!
If you're interested in learning more about sustainability initiatives at Texas Athletics and how you can become involved, contact the Sustainability Team at sustainability@athletics.utexas.edu.