Menu
Opinion

Selig’s legacy as environmental advocate is unmatched

The retirement last month of Bud Selig after 22 years as commissioner of Major League Baseball gave sports industry insiders reason to celebrate his success in maintaining an unprecedented era of labor peace between players and owners, and his cultivation of record-breaking attendance for the league.

The public at-large might focus on his role as the first professional sports commissioner to confront the scourge of performance-enhancing drugs, and his efforts to develop the toughest drug-testing policy in sports.

But for me, someone who has collaborated with the commissioner and his staff as a pro bono adviser for 10 years, what I think the world needs to know is that Bud Selig is the most influential environmental advocate in the history of sports.

Does it matter when a sports figure is influential on a social issue? It does. Consider how culturally influential sports can be: Jesse Owens in 1936, debunking the Aryan supremacy myth. Billie Jean King beating Bobby Riggs in the first female vs. male professional tennis match, a big step toward pay equality. Passage of Title IX, leading to financing for women’s athletics. Muhammad Ali’s conscientious objection to the Vietnam War and his role as a spokesman for civil rights. Magic Johnson’s openness about his HIV/AIDS infection, which helped to destigmatize that illness. Jackie Robinson breaking the race barrier in Major League Baseball. Michael Sam’s courageous statement about his sexual orientation, liberating athletes from the closet.

Indeed, few sectors are as influential as the sports industry. While 13 percent of Americans say they follow science, 71 percent say they are sports fans. It is clear that bringing environmental information to our cultural leaders is as important as bringing that information to our political leaders. As Nelson Mandela said, “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire, it has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope, where once there was only despair.”

Bud Selig received the Green Sports Alliance’s first Environmental Leadership Award in 2012.
Photo by: BEN VAN HOUTEN
Selig understands this, and he courageously used his insight on behalf of our planet. At a speech in 2012 to the Green Sports Alliance, he told hundreds of attendees that he views environmental stewardship in the same vein that he views Robinson’s breaking the race barrier in sports:

“The shining example of Jackie Robinson convinced me that we could never waste baseball’s power to shape our national sense of the kind of society that we should strive to be. … That is why I’m delighted to highlight one of our proudest success stories, how our game has used its very unique platform to impress on millions of fans the importance of environmental stewardship and sustainability.”

Selig tested the environmental waters for professional sports, and others followed. In 2005, Selig launched the Commissioner’s Initiative on Sustainability. It was the first time a professional sports league developed an environmental program and included outreach about ecologically preferable products to teams and millions of fans. As a result of that, all other sports leagues followed.

In 2007, shortly after Selig launched MLB’s leaguewide greening initiative, the NBA launched one of the sports industry’s most influential greening programs. At the meeting where it was created, I was told that the NBA was doing so because then-Commissioner David Stern believed in the correctness of the cause, and also because he had heard about Selig’s greening initiative. Today the NBA has one of the most robust environmental programs in all of sports, and it is the only league that dedicates an entire week to educate fans about environmental stewardship.

The ripple effect grew in 2008 when NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman launched NHL Green. In doing so, Bettman expressed his league’s support for responsible environmental stewardship, and he also expressed his personal admiration for what Selig was doing. As a result, professional hockey today has one of the sports industry’s most important environmental programs anywhere in the world.

Under Selig, MLB was the first league to distribute environmental advice to all stadium operators. MLB was the first to introduce environmental measurement tools to stadium operators. It was the first league to use public service announcements to educate fans about environmental stewardship. It was the first league to green its All-Star Game and league championships. And MLB was the first league to have solar arrays installed on its stadiums.

Another person who noticed what Selig was doing was tennis legend King. Having heard about the greening initiative at MLB, she contacted me and soon we were together at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, discussing how the MLB greening program could be applied to the U.S. Open Tennis Championships.

Today, as a result of Selig’s path-breaking environmental work, professional baseball, basketball, hockey, tennis, soccer, football and NASCAR have all developed league initiatives to promote environmental stewardship. In fact, the sports greening movement is one of the most influential and visible collaborations in the marketplace. Indeed, it holds the potential to become one of the most influential collaborations in the history of the environmental movement. And it all started with Bud Selig.

It is for that reason that the Green Sports Alliance bestowed its first Environmental Leadership Award on Selig in 2012. In fact, it is worth noting that the Green Sports Alliance, an international coalition of more than 300 teams and venues from 20 leagues in 14 countries, is an outgrowth of Selig’s commitment to environmental progress.

When he is inevitably inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame there will be much to celebrate about Bud Selig. From my perspective, on his plaque it would be most fitting to emphasize that this wonderful man, Major League Baseball Commissioner Allen H. (Bud) Selig, is the single most influential environmental advocate in the history of sports.

Allen Hershkowitz, Ph.D. (allen@greensportsalliance.org), is Distinguished Professor of Sustainable Management at the Presidio Graduate School and President of the Green Sports Alliance, an international coalition of leagues, teams and venues committed to environmental stewardship.



IT’S YOUR TURN TO SPEAK OUT
For further information on guest columns in Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal, please contact Betty Gomes at (704) 973-1439 or bgomes@sportsbusinessjournal.com.


SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 18, 2024

Sports Business Awards nominees unveiled; NWSL's historic opening weekend and takeaways from CFP deal

ESPN’s Jay Bilas, BTN’s Meghan McKeown, and a deep dive into AppleTV+’s The Dynasty

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast from the New York Post and Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s Jay Bilas talks all things NCAA. Big Ten Network’s Meghan McKeown shares her insight into the Caitlin Clark craze. The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn chats all things Bean Town. And SBJ’s Xavier Hunter drops in to share his findings on how the NWSL is making a social media push.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2015/02/23/Opinion/Allen-Hershkowitz.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2015/02/23/Opinion/Allen-Hershkowitz.aspx

CLOSE