NASCAR Teams Up with NRDC

At the NASCAR Green Summit in Chicago last week, the auto-racing association announced a new partnership with the Natural Resources Defense Council. The NRDC collaboration will focus on three main sustainability initiatives:

• Energy efficiency and the promotion of renewable energy sources
• Composting and recycling at NASCAR events
• Fan education, including the marketing of healthier food options at NASCAR races

The partnership brings the topic of sustainability to a diverse new audience of sports fans, offering the potential for a wider cultural shift on green issues.“The embrace of ecological stewardship by NASCAR in its unorthodox partnership with NRDC offers the encouraging prospect that millions of sports fans and businesses will be positively influenced about responsible environmental behavior,” NRDC senior scientist Allen Hershkowitz wrote about the announcement of the NASCAR partnership. “The genius of the NASCAR-NRDC collaboration is its recognition that to solve our ecological problems we must align our call to action with mainstream social values, and with a focus on protecting our heritage, whether that heritage is a NASCAR race, an outdoor little league game, college football or youngsters playing hockey on a frozen lake.”Read more about the NASCAR-NRDC partnership here.