How do you cover more ground greening America? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency figured it could reach hordes at sports events with green messages, and so it started recruiting major league and college sports teams.

Representatives from EPA Region Five were in town this week to explain its Green Venues program, and share success stories such as the Rocky Mountain Greener Venues Partnership. Jack DeBell at University of Colorado shared that the CU football stadium, Folsom Field, is in the third year working to be a zero waste facility.

The stadium diverts 70 percent of its waste from the landfill. It works, Debell said, because they have buy in from the top layers of the school’s administration (“They have a can-do attitude”), and because the student body cares deeply about environmental issues.

Buy in at the top helps come time to write the school’s vendor RFP, which has a real impact, DeBell says. The school awarded five extra points to the vendor who agreed to meet the most ‘green’ aspects of the RFP, and that vendor, Centerplate, ultimately won the contract. The concessionaire purchases only compostable plates and cutlery, eliminated condiment packets and swizzle sticks. The school organizes volunteers (from fraternities, ROTC and student groups) to operate zero waste stations at the stadium where recyclables are sorted and food and the compostable plates and cutlery are placed in compost bins. EPA helped the school calculate that The Folsom Field zero-waste and recycling efforts could reduce as much as 455 million BTU of energy, equivalent to the total yearly energy use of four U.S. households. “Even though it’s a lot of work, I agree with the statement that zero waste is no longer an idealistic vision, it’s a realistic goal and planning framework.”

At the Cleveland meeting at Progressive Field, heads of facilities for the Cleveland Browns, The Indians, The Cavs/Q, Great Lakes Science Center, The Rock Hall and even the soon-to-be-built Medical Mart began working on a Green Venues program for Cleveland.

Momentum has been quietly building at the city’s biggest venues. This year, all of Cleveland’s major sports venues will have food waste composting programs in their kitchens (not at the fan level like University of Colorado).

The Cleveland Browns have been composting, quietly, for the past year. Aramark, the food vendor at The Q, started composting food waste from its main kitchen and the club area for the Playoffs and at recent concerts like Pearl Jam, and hopes to continue the program in the regular season. Aramark worked out the details during a pilot program last fall, said staffer Jessie Jacobson, where Landmark Disposal picked up food waste in a route for downtown businesses including Forest City. The pilot diverted three tons of food per week, Jacobson said, sending it to local composting business Rosby Resource Recycling in Independence. While Aramark hasn’t calculated the savings, yet, ‘tipping’ fees at compost facilities are usually less than landfill tipping fees, even in Ohio. The Cleveland Indians, who are ready to launch food waste composting this season, estimate that composting three tons of food per week would save them as much as half of its hauling cost, says Indians facilities manager Brad Mohr.

Food waste composting is an important and often overlooked source of reducing fees and helping companies reach environmental/social responsibility goals, said Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District Business Recycling Specialist Beau Daane. While recycling can account for 40% of a businesses waste stream, food waste usually accounts for half.

Recycling plastics and fiber is making a comeback after the market crash in 2008, says Mohr. That year, the Indians made $12,000 by recycling 138.9 tons of plastic, paper and cardboard. In 2009, they made half of that but recycled 153 tons. Mohr expects the slow recovery to make its recycling efforts still a net gain this season, despite lower attendance.

Meanwhile, The Cincinnati Reds are making great strides pursuing a green venue. The team’s efforts are being spearheaded by young Outfielder Chris Dickerson who’s an active participant in his organization, Players for the Planet, The Reds also have an active partner in Rumpke, a waste hauler that organizes 32 volunteers who walk through with recycling bags during games to collect plastics. All stadium staff wear t-shirts that say ‘Think Green’, recycle messages are flashed on the Jumbotron, which, by the way, the team replaced with LED lights—reducing the Reds energy bill by 30 percent (“That one decision got us under our energy budget by $190,000 and had a return on investment of 5 years, said Reds VP of Facilities, Declan Mullin). Having players like Dickerson, who grew up in Southern California in an environmentally minded community, helped organize players to volunteer at off-site events, like the recent e-waste collection at a Kroger parking lot that diverted 7,000 pounds of computers from the landfill. A key for the Reds is The Pledge, a policy committing the team to reduce, reuse and recycle from the Top Brass, Mullin said.

The meeting concluded with the representatives of the Cleveland facilities and EPA agreeing to work out a Green Venue program for Cleveland by their next meeting in July. The framework for that agreement could be shared resources, potentially shared projects, with technical support from EPA. For more information or to join the Green Venues program, email Beau Daane bdaane@cuyahogacounty.us.