Super Bowl Geaux’s Green

This year, the Super Bowl will Geaux Green with Green Light New Orleans! The 2013 New Orleans Super Bowl Host Committee is taking special efforts to integrate environmental ethics into all Super Bowl events and reduce the CO2 produced by this year’s Super Bowl. Green Light has partnered with the Super Bowl Host Committee to host three volunteer events leading up to the Super Bowl that will help offset the carbon footprint of the game and address key environmental issues such as energy efficiency, water mitigation, and fresh food access. These three volunteer events are part of Green Light’s new March on Climate Change campaign, which aims to prevent 35 million pounds of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere and reduce the utility costs of New Orleans residents by $3.6 million.

The first of the Super Bowl events will take place in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. on Saturday, January 26. For the MLK Day of Service, Green Light will be partnering with approximately 120 volunteers from Loyola, Tulane, and Xavier Universities. These volunteers will be installing energy efficient CFL light bulbs, conducting community outreach, and picking up trash near the Freret neighborhood.

On Friday, February 1st, Green Light is partnering with Rebuilding Together New Orleans as part of their annual Kickoff to Rebuild event. Held every year in conjunction with the Super Bowl, this year’s Kickoff to Rebuild will be focused on rebuilding 10 homes and the Donsereaux-Harrison playground in the McClendonville neighborhood in Algiers. Green Light will lead 30 Rebuilding Together volunteers to install energy efficient bulbs in the 10 homes rebuilt during this project as well as 20 other homes in the area.

The Super Saturday of Service will take place on February 2nd, the day before the Superbowl. The event will be hosted by the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation in partnership with New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, the Young Leadership Committee, and the Urban League of Greater New Orleans Young Professionals. Over 700 volunteers will work on projects at or around five NORD playgrounds around the city: Lyons Center, Hunter’s Field, Palmer Park, Pontchartrain Park, and Kingswood Park. Green Light will lead 175 Super Saturday volunteers to install CFLs for 88 homes in the neighborhoods around each of the parks. Green Light volunteers will also build backyard vegetable gardens for 8 households near Lyons Center, Hunter’s Field, Palmer Park, and Pontchartrain Park. Green Light partner Bayou Land RC&D will lead additional volunteers in storm drain cleaning and marking near the Lyons Center.

These Superbowl events will contribute nearly 3,000 CFLs to March on Climate Change, our campaign to recruit 800 volunteers to help us install 80,000 CFLs by the end of March.