Environmental Leader

As part of the sports industry’s growing support to become more sustainable, for one home stand the Arizona Diamondbacks will be running on renewable energy, as will Japanese Pro Baseball’s 2009 All-Star Games.

The Diamondbacks are partnering with Arizona Public Service Co. to turn Chase Field into a renewable energy-powered stadium for a seven-game Green Homestand July 23-29 against the Pittsburgh Pirates and Philadelphia Phillies, reports the Phoenix Business Journal.

The team will buy more than 1.8 million kilowatt-hours of wind energy to run the ballpark, which is about enough power to serve 6,500 homes, according to the newspaper.

Debbie Castaldo, vice president of corporate and community partnerships for the Diamondbacks, told the Phoenix Business Journal that this event is the latest effort the team is making to become more sustainable. She said it will cost the team about $500 a game to purchase the wind-generated energy, and that officials felt it was a reasonable price to pay.

The team announced earlier this year that it is trying to have Chase Field certified by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) by the time it hosts the All Star Game in 2011, according to the business journal.

Chase Field isn’t the only arena going green. Earlier this year, the Philips Arena and the American Airlines Arena announced that they met the requirements for LEED certification.

Japan’s sports industry is also making an effort to support renewable energy. Two all-star games organized by the Nippon Professional Baseball Association (NPB) in Japan will also run on green power — wind, solar and biomass — from Mazda Motor Corp., reports AZoCleantech. These 2009 all-star games will be played at the Sapporo Dome on July 24 and at the MAZDA Zoom-Zoom Stadium Hiroshima on July 25, 2009.

Mazda will indirectly provide the electricity to illuminate the nighttime all-star 2009 games by purchasing a “Green Power Certificate” for 12,000 kilowatt hours, reports AZoCleantech. Using green power for the games is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 6.6 metric tons.

Mazda is also supporting the “NPB2008 Green Baseball Project” initiative in cooperation with Japan’s 12 professional baseball teams that is intended to help prevent global warming, according to AZoCleantech.