Interview - United States Tennis Association

GREEN TENNIS

Sustainable Business Magazine speaks to Lauren Tracy, Director of Strategic Initiatives at the United States Tennis Association (USTA) about how to offset the carbon emissions of international events, innovative builds, and being a good corporate citizen.

By Daniel Baksi

The United States Tennis Association

(USTA) is the United States’ national governing body for tennis. At the core of the not-for-profit organization, founded in 1881, is the mission to promote and develop the growth of the sport. 100% of USTA’s profits are reinvested in tennis development at the grassroots and professional level. Today, the USTA has approximately 700,000 members, and is involved in the United States Olympic and Paralympics Committee, as well as running the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Since 2008 the USTA has adopted a number of strategies to monitor the environmental impact of its crown jewel event, the US Open Tennis Championships. “At the end of 2007, the USTA started to measure and track the impact of our waste and energy use during the US Open”, says Lauren Tracy, Director of Strategic Initiatives from USTA. “We look at the US Open as a whole and find areas to incorporate and apply our sustainability strategy. The three-week tournament is one of the largest annually attended sporting events in the world, so we feel we have a responsibility to do what we can to lessen the impact on the environment.”

“Our strategy for the program has been to implement small pilot programs around certain initiatives. As the tournament is only three-weeks long, this has been the best approach as it provides us with the opportunity to launch an idea on a small, more controlled scale which provides us with the ability to either correct it during the tournament or asses after the tournament concludes so that

we can make those improvements for the tournament the following year,” explains Ms. Tracy. “For example, several years ago we launched a pilot program in our food village to collect compostable fan waste and serviceware. Leading up to the start of the US Open, we worked with the concessionaire to source all different kinds of compostable serviceware as a part of this program. However, after the event started, we walked around the food village area and realized that we had forgotten about the coffee stirrers and the milk containers. We were too far into the event to be able to make a change at that point but it gave us an opportunity to do better the next year. Sometimes it doesn’t always go as planned.”

INNOVATIVE BUILDS

Today, environmental sustainability is deeply embedded in the USTA’s business. “Up to 97% of the waste generated at the US Open is diverted from landfill,” says Ms. Tracy. “There are three structures on site where the US Open is held that are LEED certified. The first building on the site to be updated was the VIP building where people pick up their credentials. Next, the Grandstand Stadium became one of the first open air tennis stadiums in the world to be LEED certified. Then there’s the Louis Armstrong Stadium on site, which is LEED Silver certified and opened in 2018. In 2017, USTA opened the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla. It is a 64-acre facility with 100 tennis courts and half the staff works there in the LEED-certified office building.”

OFF-SETTING CARBON

Beginning in 2012, the USTA began evaluating data related to player and employee travel to attend and work the event and saw this as an opportunity to reduce the carbon that was being generated as a result of the event. “Players are traveling from all over the world to compete at the US Open,” says Ms. Tracy. “We calculate the carbon footprint of these players by tracking the miles that it would take to fly to and from the United States and their home countries. In addition, there are over 1000 people who work at the US Open, many of which are driving to the site every day for three weeks. We calculate their travel as well so that it can be offset. In 2019, we expanded this program to include fan travel for finals weekend.”

To offset the carbon emissions of international events, USTA has invested in a global project. “We have invested in cookstove projects, which is in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” says Ms. Tracy. “This year, cookstoves in Darfur, Sudan are being replaced since the original cooking method is done indoors over an open fire. This is incredibly ineffi-

“THE THREE-WEEK TOURNAMENT IS ONE OF THE LARGEST ANNUALLY ATTENDED SPORTING EVENTS IN THE WORLD, SO WE FEEL WE HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO DO WHAT WE CAN TO LESSEN THE IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT.”

cient, needing a large amount of firewood, and the particles that are emitted are harmful to those cooking, which is traditionally women. A lot of them will die from respiratory disease simply by cooking for their families. Efficient cooking is a much better way of offsetting carbon and fewer trees are being cut down. It is the association’s goal to communicate this in a cohesive way to ensure a general fan can understand the impact that efficient cookstoves have in Africa, and what that does for our world as a whole.”

OTHER INITIATIVES

“USTA has made it a goal to use the platform of the US Open to be a good corporate citizen,” says Ms. Tracy. “We are doing something new this year through a company called One Tree Planted. They plant trees throughout the United States, as well as outside of the country to support reforestation. This year we are planting a tree for every player competing at the US Open, while also asking fans to contribute in the name of their favorite player. This project is aimed to increase reforestation after the California wildfires.” c