Green Sports Alliance heads to White House, House of Commons

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The Portland Trail Blazers will be among the Green Sports Alliance members sharing sustainability case studies at the White House Thursday. 

The Green Sports Alliance is taking its message of sports and sustainability on the road this month as the topic rides a wave of momentum buoyed by the Olympic Games, a green Major League Baseball All Star game, and the efforts of some of the largest sports franchises around the world.

Martin Tull, executive director of the Portland-based Green Sports Alliance traveled to Washington, D.C., Wednesday for a Thursday "Sports and Sustainability Forum" at the White House. The event will stream live online starting at 6 a.m. Pacific Time.

Tull said the alliance worked with White House staff, the Natural Resources Defense Council and others to pull together the forum, which will be kicked of with welcoming remarks from Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Among those presenting will be Justin Zeulner, director of sustainability and planning for the Portland Trail Blazers who will share some of the team's green successes including the living wall installation and the Rose Quarter's support for non-carbon forms of transportation.

The Green Sports Alliance was tapped last year to join the Obama Administration's Better Buildings Initiative which set out to make U.S. buildings 20 percent more efficient over the next decade.

From Washington, Tull will head to London for an event at the House of Commons on the eve of the Olympic Games. At the inaugural meeting of the Global Impact Institute, organized by Howard W. Buffet, Green Sports Alliance will be among 100 groups invited to participate in an event focused on making a positive social impact.

It's a high-profile week for the alliance, which has grown quickly since its founding in partnership with the Trail Blazers and a handful of other teams in 2011.