The Vancouver Canucks last week joined professional sports teams in six leagues to create a non-profit organization that aims to lessen the impact that professional sports has on the environment.
The Canucks kicked in $10,000 to co-create the Green Sports Alliance (GSA), which will require member teams to monitor their environmental impact, report that data and help each other to reduce carbon footprints.
“I think it’s the first time that teams in all of these leagues have got together in a common venture,” said Harvey Jones, Canucks’ vice-president and general manager responsible for arena operations.
Other GSA members who, Jones said, also contributed $10,000 include:
- Major League Baseball’s Seattle Mariners;
- National Football League’s Seattle Seahawks;
- National Basketball Association’s Portland Trail Blazers;
- Women’s National Basketball Association’s Seattle Storm; and
- Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders FC.
“We are committing to conduct a scientific measurement of our impact on the environment and to report that,” Jones said of his National Hockey League team.
“We will measure our utility consumption, the amount of waste and what happens to that waste.”
He would not commit to the Canucks eventually being carbon neutral.