NBA Green: Sport's Most Impactful Sustainability Programme

Environmental scientist Dr Allen Hershkowitz was approached by NBA Commissioner David Stern in 2007 with a grand plan. The former head of American basketball wanted to transform the sport and the league into a beacon of sustainability.

Today, nearly two decades later, NBA Green stands as one of the most comprehensive environmental programmes in professional sport. 

Despite the obvious carbon footprint of the sport – the global travel, the stadiums, the entertainment complex – NBA Green goes to show that even the largest industries can meaningfully address their environmental impact.

And while it is a hugely successful programme, at the heart of it is just one simple idea.

“Less than 20% [of adults in the US] follow science, and over 80% follow sports. So, if you want to educate people and hopefully change behaviour, you need to meet people where they’re at,” Allen says.

How NBA Green took shape

NBA Green was launched in 2007 by Allen, David and the NBA’s Social Responsibility President, Kathy Behrens, founded on the simple yet powerful premise that the league's enormous platform could be used to encourage positive environmental change within the organisation and beyond.

Allen, who had previously helped Major League Baseball begin embracing sustainability, brought decades of experience from his work at the Natural Resources Defence Council. 

With the backing of Commissioner Stern (whose wife Dianne has worked with environmental advocacy organisation EarthJustice) the initiative quickly gained momentum.

The programme's early focus centred on making sustainability visible and accessible. Recycling and composting bins appeared in arena concourses, allowing fans to actively participate in reducing waste during matches. 

This grassroots approach proved quite transformative, creating real connections between the fans and the idea of environmental responsibility. As Allen had predicted, when fans saw these initiatives first-hand, they understood the league's genuine commitment to change.

Since those early days, NBA Green's accomplishments have been substantial. In May 2019, the NBA became the first professional sports league to join the UN Sports for Climate Action Framework, committing to halve its emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2040. 

What’s more, 10 NBA stadiums have LEED certification, with Sacramento's Golden 1 Center achieving the distinction of becoming the world's first indoor sports venue to receive Platinum status – the very highest accolade for buildings when it comes to sustainability.

What NBA Green has achieved since 2007

After the organisation adopted a philosophy of sustainability the league’s franchises quickly followed suit.

In the past two decades, the NBA’s Individual teams have made remarkable strides. 

State Farm Arena in Atlanta, for example, has diverted at least 90% of fan-created waste from landfills since 2021, saving more than three million pounds of potential waste in 2023 alone. 

The Portland Trail Blazers has launched the first full-venue reuse programme in American professional sport which has eliminated more than 320,000 single-use cups in a single season. 

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Clippers' new Intuit Dome features solar panels that feed battery storage systems capable of sustaining the arena off the electrical grid for an entire match.

The programme’s impact hasn’t just been in the US, though: the effects can be felt all around the world. NBA Green has helped to develop eco-friendly basketball courts made from recycled glass in Madrid, while it has also established a sustainable basketball academy in Senegal. 

During the 2025 NBA All-Star Weekend, more than 16,000 pounds of waste were diverted from landfill, while both the All-Star event and Global Games were powered entirely by renewable energy.

How the NBA is tackling basketball's travel problem

Perhaps most significantly, the league has started to address one of professional sport's most challenging environmental issues: travel. 

As things stand, NBA teams collectively travel 1.3 million air miles during a regular season, which generates a great deal of greenhouse gas emissions. 

The league has responded by restructuring schedules to reduce unnecessary journeys, ensuring teams play both Los Angeles franchises or both New York teams during single trips, rather than criss-crossing the country multiple times.

The jet-setting of the players only makes up around 5% of the NBA’s travel related emissions, though, with the rest coming from fan travel.

“The biggest ecological impact of running events is actually the fan travel. That can be anywhere between 65% and 80% of the carbon footprint of the event industry," says Justin Zeulner, Founder of the Wave Foundation.

The NBA understands this and has looked into the ways that it can cut the travel emissions of supporters. For the 2024 All-Star Game in Indianapolis, for instance, the league provided free public transport to and from the arena, which prevented a huge amount of individual car journeys.

The road ahead

Though David passed away in 2020, NBA Green continues to grow and evolve under Commissioner Adam Silver's leadership. 

The NBA Arena Sustainability Task Force, launched in April 2023, brings together all NBA venues to share best practices and accelerate progress. 

The programme focuses on three key areas: eco-data collection and impact reduction, environmental and climate justice and education and awareness.

As Allen says, what began as "the right thing to do" has become "an essential business management obligation". 

Through NBA Green, the league demonstrates that sustainability and commercial success need not be mutually exclusive.