Green Games, initiated by UVA's Office for Sustainability, is a concerted effort to redirect waste generated at home athletics events away from the landfills. Read more about what goes on behind the scenes.
Volunteering with UVA’s Green Games throughout 2023, I’ve definitely become an aficionado on waste reduction at athletic events.
Between the Spring and Fall 2023 semesters, I’ve worked 7 Green Games, helping to minimize UVA’s waste footprint by diverting thousands of pounds of compostable and recyclable waste from ending up in the landfill; engaged with football and basketball fans; and promoted awareness of UVA’s sustainability initiatives. While volunteering at Green Games is certainly a lot of work, it’s always incredibly rewarding to see the volume of waste our team is able to divert.
Why Green Games
Since 2010, UVA has been working to reduce waste at football and basketball games. UVA’s earliest green athletics initiatives involved committing to reduce waste at one football game and one basketball game per season as part of a nationwide Game Day Challenge. Beginning in the 2022 football season, UVA expanded this program to make every home football game a Green Game, with the help of both Sustainability Student Employees as well as student volunteers, and it was further expanded to include two men’s basketball games and two women’s basketball games in the spring.
UVA’s Green Games are part of the UVA Sustainability 2020–2030 plan. In part inspired by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, the 2020–2030 plan outlines UVA’s sustainability goals to be achieved by 2030. Among the plan’s core tenets are achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 and being entirely free of fossil fuels by 2050; advancing sustainability, equitability, and health within the greater Charlottesville-Albemarle area through community partnerships; as well as the “30 by 30” goals, including a goal to reduce waste by 70% (from 2010 levels).
How It Works
Usually, Green Games begin about two hours after the start of the game, once waste has begun to accumulate. Before each game, roughly 15-20 student volunteers and Sustainability Student Employees meet outside Scott Stadium or John Paul Jones Arena. Once we make our way inside, we split into pairs and begin digging through landfill, recycling, and compost bins to make sure waste is going in the right places. Okay, maybe this isn’t your idea of fun, but with the camaraderie of other students and knowing the impact we’re making, it’s worth it!
We continue making rounds along the outsides of Scott Stadium and JPJ until the game ends, after which we make our way into the arena and start collecting waste from around the seats. Each Green Game lasts around 3 hours, during which we collect and sort as much waste as we can, but after that 3-hour window, we head home.
Making a Difference!
Each Green Game is a lot of work, but they’ve been wildly successful. Thanks to the dedication of 85 volunteers, we successfully diverted over 60,000 pounds of waste from the landfill during the six home football games this fall. This success was further fueled by an additional motivation for waste diversion this season. The waste management company, GFL Environmental, sponsored Scott Stadium's Race to Zero Waste initiative, urging fans to prioritize recycling and composting throughout the season. As an incentive, if we achieved a 60,000-pound diversion from the landfill, GFL Environmental committed to making a $6,000 donation towards sustainability efforts on Grounds. We successfully accomplished this goal!
Now, we eagerly anticipate carrying this momentum into the upcoming basketball season.
Green Games can always use more volunteers, so if you want to get involved, be sure to follow @sustainableuva on Instagram or sign up for the UVA Sustainability Newsletter and keep an eye out for the Green Game volunteer form. Aside from directly volunteering, fans looking to help out should remember to take a moment to sort their waste out before throwing it out—if you’re unsure where to throw something out, you can read the signs on the compost bins, or look it up on the UVA Waste Directory. And if you ever see a student digging through a compost bin at a football or basketball game, please stop by and give them a quick high-five as thanks!
Dakota Yu (they/them) is a student employee on the Office for Sustainability's Outreach team. A second-year Computer Science + Mathematics student, Dakota is involved in numerous sustainability initiatives, including volunteering or working at over 10 Green Games.