Allen Hershkowitz PhD -- Climate and Sports

Allen Hershkowitz PhD is an environmental scientist who joined Ted for an update conversation. Allen has worked at the confluence of climate and sports for 25 years. He first recorded on Flanigan's Eco-Logic in March of 2022 highlighting his early influences and early career... including 28 years at the Natural Resources Defense Council. There he met the actor Robert Redford who encouraged him to create an alliance of sports leagues and teams to promote efficiency, sustainability, and climate protection. That gave rise to the Green Sports Alliance which Allen ran for years. The update starts off with the big picture: It is certainly encouraging, Allen acknowledges, that today nearly every major sports league and each venue has a sustainability plan. But Allen points squarely to the current rollback in federal support for greening. This has retarded progress and has made his work more difficult. And while top athletes earn huge salaries, sporting venues are business ventures. They are tight on cash and scrutinize all expenditures carefully. Allen discussed his current work for the New York Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates, overseeing engineering audits of their stadiums, detailing their technical potentials at different returns on investment. Allen noted that many of his colleagues at venues wish that there were federal requirements for efficiency and greenhouse gas reductions... turning CFOs' view from "would be nice" to " must do it."Allen mentions the Trump administration pulling the United States out of the Paris Accord, gutting the EPA and other agencies, and how these actions have deflated some of his American work, while Europe and Australia have maintained strict greening laws. In the early days of the Green Sports Alliance one of Allen's great triumphs was getting Bud Selig, head of the Major League Baseball, to say that climate change is real. A recent success was getting the Yankees management to host the United Nations at its stadium and to pledge its ongoing support for the Paris Accords despite Washington.Next week, Allen is off to the French Open tennis tournament in Paris to see the tournament and to participate in meetings. He recants the story of how he was introduced bo Billie Jean King years ago, and how she had wanted to green the United States Tennis Association (USTA). Allen dreamed of all the tennis grand slams... French Open, Australian Open, Wimbleton... to adhere to the sustainability standards of the USTA. Now they do!Ted and Allen discuss the upcoming Olympics in in Los Angeles... LA 28. Allen states that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) sets the gold standard for green events. The two biggest impacts of an Olympic games is building venues and transporting fans to the events. In LA, there will be no new construction. Instead, the games spread around to existing venues. Electric buses and shuttles are planned for Olympians. The IOC is also investing in the legacy of the LA Olympics, funding LA non-profits focused on resilience and working with the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) to take lessons learned in greening the Olympics to future events and applications.