Football and carbon

American Forests, Spring, 2005

Carbon emissions may be the last thing on your mind when your team's on the 10-yard line, but the National Football League (NFL) is taking steps to offset the bad air--150 to 200 tons of it--generated by Super Bowl traffic.

When the Patriots and the Eagles duked it out in Jacksonville, Florida, earlier this year, organizers were working to make the match carbon-neutral. One way to do that is by planting trees to offset the emissions. With that in mind, the NFL and some of the event's contractors sponsored a tree-planting by Greenscape of Jacksonville. Several acres of small trees were slated to be planted, according to the Detroit Free Press, which reported a similar deal is being considered for Detroit, next year's host city.