ESPN's 'Green Game'

http://www.sustainability.ku.edu/greengame/ESPN_GREEN_GAME_LOGO.jpg

The global concentration on ‘greenness’ and becoming eco-friendly has become an obsession among the tree-hugging types for many years, and slowly over the last decade has become an issue of mainstream prominence. Only recently has it become a daily topic in the mainstream media, and even then it is often put on the back-burner on account of more immediate news that is seen as more interesting because it is in the moment. However, for the people like myself who tend not to watch the nightly news or CNN on a daily basis in favor of the daily Twins game or ESPN push the environment even further into the back of our minds, as it is an issue rarely presented to us during timeouts or between innings. However, this winter that all changed, at least for one Saturday afternoon. This is because of an initiative made by ESPN, in cooperation with Kansas University, to incorporate environmentalist concepts into its broadcast of a college basketball game. It was called, simply, “The Green Game” and took place on December 19^th, 2009. Its goal was mostly to gain attention to the cause of environmentalism, but it also did its share in preservation.

This project is aimed mostly at informing the audience of environmental issues and tips on how they can pitch in, however there are a few things the network and school did to make this broadcast more “green”. In addition to on screen visuals with tips on recycling and reducing your carbon footprints, they showed clips of both school’s campus-wide efforts to reducing their carbon footprints. Also thoroughly discussed throughout the show were the efforts ESPN, Kansas University and the city of Lawrence, Kansas to make the broadcast of this game as environmentally friendly as possible. This included the purchase of electricity from a local hydroelectric plant to be used to help produce the show, reusable batteries in a majority of the electrical devices used on-site, additional recycling units available throughout the arena, and the use of hybrid rental cars by the crew. Also, eco-friendly cleaning supplies were used, warm up shirts were made out of 100% recycled material, and energy efficient lighting was used on the set.

Clearly, ESPN was making a valiant effort to present the issue to a demographic that likely isn’t overly informed on this topic. Whether it was receiving pressure to become more eco-friendly, did this in order to gain credibility in this area, or simply did it out of good will is a question that remains unanswered. But I do not think it can be denied that, at least for this one game and one day, they did their part to help. It is a good first step for the network, and sports in general. While watching this game, and the advertisement of it leading up, it definitely sparked my interest in the project and got me interested enough t watch the game when I probably otherwise wouldn’t have. However, after doing the research on how much they really did, I feel like they could have done more. The advertisements leading up to it gave me the impression that the game would be entirely self sufficient, or at least more so than it was. Only a portion of the energy used came from a hydroelectric plant. A broadcast powered by completely self-sufficient, or at least energy efficient electricity would have been much more impressive. As I said before, it was a good start to something they can take a lot further.

Because it was a live television broadcast, it is difficult to judge the spatial use and use of pictorial images as opposed to written or even blank space. Obviously a majority of the screen was dedicated to the game. Other than that, where there is typically a scrolling bar of the day’s other sports scores included tips for becoming more eco-friendly at various points of the game. Also, during timeouts and dead ball situations, video clips of different energy-efficiency programs on both school’s campus were shown to show their part in the project. As far as symbols used, the only one found was a re-modeling of the usual ESPN logo, incorporating the very recognizable three arrow recycling symbol around the normal logo.

The fact that this program took place on campus of Kansas University also says a lot about the effort. The fact that KU is one of the most innovative colleges in the country, not to mention sports a very talented and popular basketball team, made it a great choice for this game. Not only did it give recognition to Kansas that is greatly deserved, therefore setting an example for colleges and corporations nationwide, but it kept with ESPN’s theme by keeping the broadcast as eco-friendly as possible.

I feel ESPN did take a great first step towards both becoming a more eco-friendly network and helping inform many of its viewers of environmental issues and solutions. However, it needs to continue this effort if it is to become a leader in this field. They could do this by holding events like this more often, do more to decrease the impact of these productions, or even make some of these production changes permanent and widespread. These are some of the next steps needed to help move forward into a fully environmentally conscious entity.