Ticket for a Tree?

Perhaps you have been to an event or at least heard about events trying to become more environmentally-friendly. For instance, Dave Matthews Band partnered with the Nature Conservancy to plant trees to "offset" their carbon intensive tour and used organic cotton in their t-shirts. Other events, such as the Green Festivals, offset their carbon emissions, use biodegradable cutlery, and celebrate sustainable organizations.

Surely there are different methods to "green" events, whether it be offsetting, fair trade souvenirs, or organic food. For the sake of this post I want to focus on the tree-planting idea. Last year I spent about nine months researching voluntary carbon instruments, primarily carbon offsets and renewable energy certificates. Since there are no uniform standards, you can invest in wind energy, methane-capture projects, or plant a tree, for an array of prices. Without going too in-depth on the details (you can read my entire report here) I want to propose an alternative for events to pursue.

Consider any event, let's examine an NBA basketball game. Rather than calculating the game's "carbon footprint" and releasing an article to the local newspaper, how about empowering each individual to make a positive environmental impact. Use the money that would have spent investing in some renewable energy project on the other side of the country to purchase little trees or compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). As everyone leaves the gym employees can hand out their complimentary gift. During the game, messages on the big screen can get fans excited about what they can do with their tree or CFL. You may be thinking, how is a tree of CFL related to basketball in anyway? The truth is, they are not really related. Not directly at least. But fans could receive a lot more perks if the arena spent less paying for electricity by using CFLs or LED lights. Want to make it more relevant? Customize the product presentation to fit the NBA team. The CFL packaging or tree itself are prime for any promotional material.

Sports' team paraphernalia does one thing: it appeals to the majority. Most people attending the games have at least one thing in common: they like basketball and/or they like the team playing. Kids will not be too thrilled with the idea of receiving a tree or light bulb instead of a plastic bobble head toy. Fortunately, this is just an example and could be more easily implemented at business conferences or sustainability-related event.

Personally, I would pick a CFL over a bobble head any day! But then again I am not a twelve year old boy wearing a Detroit Piston's jersey during the NBA finals.

I would love to hear your suggestions for greening events without greenwashing them. Please leave any and all your thoughts in the comments section.