UGBC, Red Sox unite

Given the amount of refreshments available there, sporting venues generate a substantial number of bottles and cans that may or may not be recycled. The Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) will be teaming up with the Red Sox in a brand new initiative to improve sustainability at Fenway Park, starting at the Red Sox's first home game on tomorrow.

"This is an idea we had over the off-season to get local colleges to join in the effort to make Fenway more sustainable," said Katie Haas, senior manager of business affairs for the Red Sox. "A sister company of the Red Sox, Fenway Sports Group, has a good relationship with BC, so we went and got in touch with the school." Aside from BC, the Red Sox also contacted other schools from the area, including Wentworth, Northeastern University, Boston University, and Franklin-Pierce University.

"The people at Fenway just contacted BC out of the blue a few weeks ago looking for someone to talk to about this, and upon seeing that [Alejandro and I] had just been elected, they called us," said UGBC President-Elect Christopher Denice, CSOM '09. "It's perfect, because it's right in line with what Alejandro and I want to do: increase sustainability."

After coordinating with the approximately 150 volunteers from BC, a schedule will be made for anywhere from 30 to 75 students to attend each home game and make up what is known as the Green Team. Working with the two team leaders, Mike Comolli, CSOM '09, and Emily Luksha, A&S '10, the Green Team will collect cans and bottles in between each of the innings as a public service announcement is made over the Jumbotron reminding people to give their recyclables to the students clad in green.

Volunteering to be a member of the Green Team is not just a way to get into Fenway, however. Students must make a commitment to follow an assigned schedule and to make sure that they attend all of the games that they agreed to help at.

This is where some of the numerous responsibilities of the Green Team leaders come in; they are expected to make sure people uphold their commitments to go to the games. In addition to such hands-on organization - which also includes getting the group to Fenway and coordinating them into team's efforts once they are there - Comolli and Luksha will also serve as liasons to the administration at the stadium, meeting with a representative before every game and between certain games throughout the season.

Education is an equally important part of the initiative. "The leaders gather the members of the Green Team, who meet at Fenway about three hours before game time, and find a table for six of them to sit at with posters and 'A to Z' handouts [provided by the NRDC] about sustainability practices," Comolli said. The members who go out to collect recyclables from the attendees are also responsible for answering any questions that people may put to them.

The Green Team will not be working entirely independently, however. The staff at Fenway will still have a role in the effort, as the Green Team will be in constant communication with them. According to Haas, the Green Team is now considered part of the ballpark staff, and the coordinators at Fenway will meet every game night with the Green Teams from each school. "We're going to impose the same rules and regulations that we do on our regular game-day staff," Haas said. "If there are problems and people aren't fulfilling their volunteering commitments or things get out of hand, then we'll take steps to fix the problem."

"I think it's a great thing for the Red Sox to do," said Luksha, who is also a member of Ecopledge. "It reaches a wide audience, and there is a lot of information about this that people don't know."

Comolli said the UGBC and the Red Sox are also teamed up with Poland Spring and Aramark in the effort; Poland Spring is sponsoring them and providing the green T-shirts for the team to wear, and Aramark is providing free vouchers for dinner for all of the volunteers at the games.

The response to the call for BC volunteers has been "phenomenal," Denice said. "When we first sent an e-mail out to the BC community, we got about 140 e-mails within the first few days from people willing to go leaps and bounds to get to a game," he said. "People were willing to volunteer, whether it was just to do something, to see the Sox, or to help recycle. We're really looking forward to it doing well."

Just as much enthusiasm toward the effort can be found in the staff over at Fenway. "We love working with the local schools because we love having these relationships with the local colleges," Haas said. "It's a fun way for college students to really immerse themselves in Boston if they're not originally from here. And what better way to do it than to come to Fenway Park?"

This is not the only initiative that the UGBC is working toward concerning sustainability; it will also be working with the athletics department in the future to make Conte Forum and Alumni stadium more sustainable. "They have been very open to the idea of increasing the amount of visible recycling by placing more receptacles around the venue," Denice said. "We can try something like [the Green Team] on Shea Field, anything to make it quick and painless for people to recycle." Collecting the exorbitant amount of beer cans on football game days and making announcements on the Jumbotron were other ideas that were put forth as forms of collaboration with the athletics department.

Even though there has already been a great deal of student response thus far, Denice and Haas are still encouraging more students from BC to participate. "If there are students looking to join the BC Green Team, they should definitely contact the Green Team leaders. We'd love to have them," Haas said. "This is a really big undertaking, the first of its kind in sports, and we're really excited about it. We couldn't do it without our volunteers, and especially not without the help of BC volunteers."