What is your role within the NFL?

To evaluate environmental impacts of our major events (Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, NFL Kickoff, etc.) and then to develop cost-effective ways to address those impacts in partnership with local organizations and agencies.

What advice would you give to companies beginning to contemplate a response to climate change?

To seek out expert advice on the environmental impact of operations. We have consulted with experts from universities and government agencies over the last couple of years while attempting to quantify the carbon footprint of our events.

What has been the most successful aspect of your organizations response?

The carbon neutral project has created the most significant local community response as well as creating greater media awareness and greater awareness among other event organizers and facility managers.

What has been the biggest barrier to your aims to effectively react to issues surrounding climate change --- how has this been overcome?

The biggest barrier to our efforts has been knowledge: how do we determine the environmental impacts of our events? And how do we come up with effective ways to address them? How can we make these projects themselves sustainable so that they won't collapse when we leave town and move on to another Super Bowl city?

We have addressed the first two challenges by bringing in the scientific expertise necessary to do the research and then working to understand the issues ourselves so we can discuss them knowledgeably.

We have addressed the third point by keeping our solutions consistent with sound business practices - by not trying to do "checkbook environmentalism." This has been accomplished by forming strategic partnerships in each host community and helping to develop solutions that can be implemented with local resources and can continue without outside funding.

How are you measuring the effectiveness of your response?

In addition to the quantitative measurements (tons of solid waste diverted from landfills, tons of perishable food rescued and served to needy people in the host community, amounts of material salvaged and reused in the local community, numbers of items donated to local organizations, tons of carbon sequestered through tree planting, etc.) we also try to measure the impact we are having on public awareness. This can be inferred by looking at the quantity and quality of media coverage as well as the changes in behavior noted among other organizers of large events.

Super Bowl is the single largest sporting championship event in the world. Practices that are instituted at Super Bowl (security, entertainment, companion events, community events, environmental, sponsorships, etc.) are often copied by many other organizers of large public events. We try to keep track of this type of information as it is published.