CASE Study: Yale UNIVERSITy, HOME OF THE BULLDOGS Location: New Haven, Connecticut THE BULLDOGS’ GREENING STORY: MOTIVATIONS, FOUNDED: CHALLENGES, AND LESSONS 1701 yale University is home to the nation’s first athletics and TYPE: recreation greening program driven by student-athletes. Since Private establishing Bulldog Sustainability in 2008, students have Total STUDENT Population: motivated Yale’s athletics department and many sports teams CAMPUS FACTS 11,906 (5,379 undergraduates) Staff: across campus to improve their environmental performance. 9,323 The Bulldog Sustainability student team, with support from Primary ATHLETICS CONFERENCE: the yale athletics department and the Office of Sustainability, Ivy League helped set greener policies for athletic offices, launched a PRImARy ATHLETICS DIVISION: Green Athletics Team Certification program for all sports teams, NCAA Division 1 and assembled an Athletics Sustainability Action Plan that NUmBER OF VARSITy TEAmS: 35 (18 women’s, 16 men’s, 1 co-ed) spans all sports facilities. During the 2013-14 academic year, NUMBER OF Sports Facilities: Bulldog Sustainability will calculate baseline energy metrics for 39 (29 athletic, 10 recreational) all athletics facilities, reduce athletic transportation impacts, Sustainability OFFICE FOUNDED: and upgrade the facility-wide recycling program. The Bulldogs’ 2005 student-led greening approach consists of many small initiatives AASHE STARS Rating: that together add up to a comprehensive and successful Silver, 2011 environmental program. Sports GREENING Work Started: 2008 WHY IS YALE GREENING “YaLE ATHLETICS IS PLEASED TO PARTNER WITH SPORTS? THE UNIVERSITy’S OVERALL SUSTAINABILITY Yale’s primary motivation to green sports, according MISSION,” SAYS ATHLETICS DIRECTOR TOM BECKETT. to the Athletics Sustainability Action Plan, is the “VIRTUALLY THE ENTIRE CAMPUS COMMUNITY, IN opportunity to engage thousands of students and spectators in sustainable practices at Yale’s sports SOME waY, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IS CONNECTED facilities. “The Yale University athletics department TO OUR TEAMS, PROGRAMS, AND FACILITIES; has a unique role on campus in that it reaches a diverse population including students, alumni, THEREFORE WE SERVE AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN faculty, staff, and external fans,” says Athletics PROMOTING THE UNIVERSITY MISSION TO REDUCE Sustainability Action Plan coauthor Erin Carter (class of 2012). “Whether it is through the use of Yale’S GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS. WE ARE our gym, participation on a team, or via spectators COMMITTED TO THE MISSION OF CULTIVATING at intercollegiate events, the athletics department provides a highly visible outlet to lead the university in A CULTURE OF SUSTAINABILITY BY INTEGRATING its goal of becoming a more sustainable campus.” ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL VALUES INTO OUR DAILY OPERATIONS.” Yale University | Collegiate Game Changers: How Campus Sport is Going Green |PAGE PAGE 68 68 | Collegiate Game Changers: How Campus Sport is Going Green | Yale University Photo courtesy of Yale University. Yale Photo courtesy of CASE Study: Yale UNIVERSITy, Standout SPORTS GREENING HOME OF THE BULLDOGS ACCOMPLISHMENTS GREENER ATHLETICS AND Recreation Operations Goals: • All athletics department office paper must contain recycled content. Yale Athletics currently uses office paper with 30 percent postconsumer recycled content. • The custodial staff must use environmentally preferable cleaning products. Currently, 75 percent of department cleaning products are Green Seal certified. • Waterless urinals must be installed in all new athletic facility construction projects. Barbara Chesler, senior associate athletics director and lead staff liaison for Bulldog Sustainability, emphasizes that the reach of Yale athletics allows the sports greening • The athletics department is minimizing paper use by program to enhance the school’s athletic facilities while engaging the community. eliminating desk-side printers and copiers in athletics “Building off the Bulldog Sustainability efforts implemented since its creation in offices, holding paperless staff meetings, and transitioning 2008, the yale athletics department has proven that it can improve its own facilities, to electronic operations. while also helping to change the behavior of community members,” says Chesler. • Energy-saving power settings must be used as defaults “The mission of Bulldog Sustainability is to cultivate a culture of sustainability in Yale on all athletics office computers. athletics. We do that by integrating environmental values into internal operations and sporting events.” GREENER SPORTS Facilities: • Recycling infrastructure was installed at 100 percent According to athletics director Tom Beckett, Bulldog Sustainability capitalizes on of athletics and recreation facilities (including athletics yale Athletics’ high visibility to influence the culture of the university. “yale Athletics offices), and upgrades based on student proposals are is pleased to partner with the university’s overall sustainability mission. Virtually the planned. entire campus community, in some way, directly or indirectly, is connected to our teams, programs, and facilities; therefore we serve an important role in promoting • Bike racks have been installed at close to 100 percent the university mission to reduce Yale’s greenhouse gas emissions,” says Beckett. of athletics and recreation facilities (including athletics “I am proud of our teams and athletes who have engaged themselves in the many offices). Bulldog Sustainability initiatives, from helping to improve the efficiency of our facilities • Water fountains were installed in almost 100 percent to the Green Team Certification to their own personal changes in behavior. We are of athletics and recreation facilities (including athletics committed to the mission of cultivating a culture of sustainability by integrating offices). environmental and social values into our daily operations.” • Energy efficiency upgrades have been made in almost 100 percent of athletics and recreation facilities, including WHERE DID YALE START? enhancements to occupancy sensors, lighting retrofits, and Bulldog Sustainability started in 2008 when the athletics department and Office of variable-frequency drives for pool pumps. 2013 facility Sustainability hired four students to devise a plan for integrating sustainability into upgrades are projected to save more than $100,000 in Yale sports operations. An anonymous donor with a strong interest in environmental energy costs annually. programs provided the primary funding for the research team and program • About 80 percent of all leaf waste from athletics fields implementation. This donation helped establish a partnership between the athletics is mulched for reuse in turf maintenance. department and the Office of Sustainability just a few years after the Office of • The Yale Boat House uses organic fertilizers, which are Sustainability was established. From the beginning, students provided the passion, equivalent in cost to conventional pesticide alternatives. research, ideas, and planning to grow Yale’s sports greening effort. GREENER SPORTS TEAMS AND Outreach: SUSTAINABLE ATHLETICS STRATEGIC PLAN • Bulldog Sustainability’s student-athletes created the In the fall of 2008, the team of four students created a sustainability plan offering nation’s first collegiate Green Athletics Team Certification short- and long-term suggestions for environmentally preferable sports operations. program to motivate varsity and club teams to make This Sustainable Athletics Strategic Plan included green strategies related to energy, greener decisions, while educating coaches and athletes water, transportation, waste diversion, paper use, and event concessions. about environmentally preferable operations. • Bulldog Sustainability’s student-athletes established In January 2009, the NCAA invited Bulldog Sustainability team leader Sara Smiley a “green team” (sustainability committee) with Smith, a Ph.D. candidate at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies representatives from more than 12 varsity teams and (class of 2013), to present the plan at the association’s annual convention. yale’s additional club teams. ultimate goal, according to Smiley, was “to create a model of sustainable collegiate athletics that is measurable, transferable, and adaptable.” This student-driven • Students created the Bulldog Sustainability brand and evaluation of sustainability opportunities in the athletics department and its authors’ outreach program, placing environmental education signs mission to establish Yale as a national sports greening leader served as a catalyst for in almost 100 percent of Yale’s athletics and recreation broader campus buy-in and involvement. facilities. PAGE 69 | Collegiate Game Changers: How Campus Sport is Going Green | Yale University Today, Bulldog Sustainability is made up of 12 paid and volunteer student-athletes EIGHT STEPS FOR SPORTS GREENING from a mix of varsity and club sports who serve as researchers and analysts in BRANDING AND Outreach collaboration with staff from the athletics department and Office of Sustainability. LESSONS FROM BRANDING BULLDOG “The Office of Sustainability, facilities, media, and public relations are our most SUSTAINABILITY important campus partners and play a big role in advancing our ideas,” says Mary Beth Barham, Bulldog Sustainability research assistant, varsity field hockey player, 1. Adapt materials for each audience: students, and environmental studies major (class