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Dr. Allen Hershkowitz was named by the New York Yankees as its first Environmental Science Advisor yesterday.
The longtime NRDC Senior Scientist, ex-President of the Green Sports Alliance and Founding Director of Sport and Sustainability International (SandSI) becomes the first person to hold such a title in team sports history. Already a major advance in the Green-Sports movement, the Yankees’ move has the chance to be a true game changer.
The New York Yankees have an almost century-old tradition of firsts: Yankee Stadium, which opened in 1923, was the first three-tiered sports venue in the world. The team was the first to put numbers on players’ uniforms. And the Bronx Bombers are the first and only Major League Baseball club to win five World Series titles in a row (from 1949-53).
Another first took place on Tuesday when the Yankees announced that Dr. Allen Hershkowitz had signed on as the team’s Environmental Science Advisor, a position that’s new to the world of professional sports. His work will also support Major League Soccer’s NYCFC, a joint venture between the Yankees and City Football Group¹, which plays its home games at Yankee Stadium.
“Being appointed as the Yankees’ Environmental Science Advisor is a unique honor and responsibility,” said Hershkowitz, a native New Yorker, offered in a statement. “I applaud the team’s leadership for breaking new ground in the sports industry by being the first team to create this important position.”
Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, the new Environmental Science Advisor with the New York Yankees (Photo credit: J. Henry Fair)
It makes perfect sense that the Yankees chose Hershkowitz for this position. He has, over a decades-long career, staked out a unique role as a visionary at the intersection of the environment, science and sports.
As Senior Scientist at the NRDC, Hershkowitz showed leaders across the sports world that leading on the environment made business sense and was the right thing to do. This goes back to his formative Green-Sports work in the mid-2000s with then-Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, the Philadelphia Eagles, and the US Tennis Association, among others. He Co-Founded and served as President of the Green Sports Alliance and is a Founding Director of Sport and Sustainability International (SandSI).
While Hershkowitz is arguably a no-brainer pick, what might shock some people is that the 27-time world champions created the Environmental Science Advisor position in the first place.
But dig a little deeper and the appointment should surprise no one.
That’s because the Yankees have been at the forefront of the Green-Sports movement since they moved into the new Yankee Stadium in 2009, often with Hershkowitz’ counsel as a consultant. Sustainability initiatives include:
- Diverting 85 percent of waste from landfill by recycling and composting, very close to the 90 percent threshold required to claim Zero-Waste status
- Innovating on energy efficiency through the introduction of LED lighting and more
- Measuring, reducing and offsetting the team’s greenhouse gas emissions impacts The latter includes the distribution of thousands of life-saving, high-efficiency cookstoves to women in Africa
The Yankees, through their carbon offset investments, have funded the distribution of life-saving, high-efficiency cookstoves in Africa (Photo credit: South Pole Group)
Per a club press release, Hershkowitz will work “to expand existing promotion of responsible environmental stewardship among essential members of the Yankees family, including suppliers, sponsors, fans and the local community.” His primary focus will be on energy use, waste management, water conservation, and food services.
“The Yankees have always been devoted to supporting the best interests of our community, our fans and our players, and we believe effective eco-friendly initiatives are a key element of our interactions,” said Hal Steinbrenner, the Yankees’ principal owner and managing general partner, in a statement. “We have made significant strides throughout the years, and as such, Yankee Stadium is proud to promote a zero-waste economy, and stand as one of the most successful recycling and composting venues in all of sports…We look forward to even more improvement under Allen’s guidance.”
In a statement, John Adams, Founding Director and former President of NRDC, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010 for his environmental leadership, emphasized the significance of Hershkowitz’s new position: “This is a very smart move by the Yankees. One of greatest sports organizations in the world has chosen to use its visibility to promote environmental literacy in a critically important way. I congratulate Allen for becoming the Environmental Science Advisor to the Yankees, the most influential team in the history of sports.”
GSB’s Take: The mere creation of the Environmental Science Advisor position by the New York Yankees is already an important advance for the sports greening movement. By choosing Hershkowitz for the job, the Yankees — already near the top of the Green-Sports sports standings — have shifted into a higher gear, telling the world that the environment — and environmental science — is integral to its business.
It says here that, for the Yankees’ appointment of Hershkowitz as Environmental Science Advisor to fulfill its promise and become a Green-Sports game-changer, these two things need to happen:
1. Climate change, not spoken of much by the Yankees to this point, must consistently and clearly be communicated as a prime focus of the Yankees’ environmental efforts, and,
2. Engage fans — those who attend games and the larger number who follow the team on TV, online and elsewhere — to take positive environmental actions.
Do those two things and the Yankees and Hershkowitz will have teamed up to become Green-Sports Hall of Famers.
Watch this space.
¹ City Football Group is led by Sheik Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahayan, a member of the royal family of Abu Dhabi. In addition to its stake in NYCFC, it owns Manchester City, current champions of the English Premier League, and four other football/soccer clubs around the world.
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