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One of the newest players in the green building game is none other than Major League Baseball.  Ballparks across the country are adding myriad “green features” to their utilities, concessions, stadium lighting, and even parking.  The Washington Nationals’ stadium, Nationals Park is even LEED accredited.  The first ball park in America to have this honor bestowed upon it.  After all the positive press the Nationals received in the wake of their green building initiatives, several other major market ball clubs have followed suit.  While some teams are retrofitting their stadiums with green features, others are contributing funds.  The world champion Philadelphia Phillies for example, recently contributed 250K to ‘payback’ their carbon footprint for the 2008 season, and part of the 2009 season.  This money was earmarked to be used on wind turbines and biomass burning(click the link if you don’t know what that is, I most definitely had to fire up the googles on that one).

Last season, the Seattle Mariners saved close to 60K in waste removal costs by recycling 342 TONS of plastic, glass, and cardboard.  The Cleveland Indians installed several solar panels that will power the 400 TVs scattered around the stadium, while the New York Mets’ new park, Citi Field has waterless urinals and hands free faucets because as Allen Hershkowitz of the NRDC put it; “it’s crazy to use drinking water to flush urine”.  The man definitely has a valid point.  Even Major League Baseball’s oldest stadium, Fenway Park, installed 28 solar panels.  Ironically, they were not installed on the Green Monster, but still offset 37% of the natural gas burned to heat the Red Sox’ water supply.  Considering the ridiculous amounts of money that all-star major leaguers earn, a lot of the money spent on these green building initiaves are just a drop in the bucket in the overall scheme of things, but as civic leaders in their communities, it is nice to see them setting a very good example.  For some more info on what baseball and LEED are up to, head on over to Scientific American.  And go Red Sox!  Hopefully that doesn’t cost me any subscribers.

Here’s a picture of the solar panels installed at AT&T Park, where the San Francisco Giants Play.