Mark Andrew believes that sports stadiums can be green—and not just on their playing surfaces. Sports represent “the sector of our economy with the highest-profile buildings,” says Andrew, a former Hennepin County commissioner and now a public-affairs consultant who recently founded Minneapolis-based GreenMark Environmental Sports Marketing. “So it’s a wonderful platform for heightening public awareness around the value of green building.”
A green sports facility typically uses recycled building materials and has systems to capture, filter, and reuse storm water runoff. It also incorporates alternative energy systems, such as solar, wind or solid waste; waste reduction strategies, primarily through recycling; energy-efficient lighting; and efficient land use, such as adjacent green spaces and access to transit. “Today, there are probably a dozen major league sports facilities [worldwide] that are interested in building or refurbishing green,” Andrew says. “Next year, there probably will be 20.” The Minnesota Twins and the University of Minnesota gridiron Gophers have expressed interest in making their new parks green as well.
GreenMark, Andrew claims, is the only company developing sponsorship deals between green teams and interested corporations. “It drives value for the sponsor, because they get both name recognition and brand reinforcement,” he says. “And it gives more value to the sports teams, because it creates new revenue streams.”
GreenMark has assembled a database of more than 1,000 companies worldwide that are at least considering rebranding themselves in a greener hue. Corporations such as Toyota and Target are employing environmentally friendly practices and processes and providing greener products and services. “The most dominant issue in the corporate marketplace today is the environment,” Andrew asserts.
Andrew stepped down as senior vice president of Tunheim Partners, a Minneapolis-based public relations and public affairs agency, to launch GreenMark in November. The firm is actually one-half of GreenMark Enterprises; the other half is a public-affairs consulting practice that represents “clients interested in positioning themselves as good corporate citizens,” Andrew says.
By early January, GreenMark had corralled several professional sports-industry clients; confidentiality agreements prevent Andrew from divulging their identities. On the public affairs side, Andrew says, the firm already is on track to exceed its first-year revenue goal of $300,000. “I think what GreenMark is going to demonstrate in 2007,” he says, “is that there is an appetite in the business world for affiliating with the environment as an overall business strategy.”
