FALCONS GREEN INITIATIVE
The Atlanta Falcons organization - through awareness campaigns and its own actions - is affecting real change in the Metro Atlanta community and beyond, planting seeds for future generations of our earth's inhabitants.
Spearheaded by Falcons General Manager Thomas Dimitroff and his own personal passion for the environment, the Atlanta Falcons Green Initiative has grown into a company-wide cultural movement helping to educate and empower the Falcons front office staff, coaches, players and all associates within the Blank Family of Businesses to become better stewards of our planet and its natural resources.
## OUR MISSION
The Falcons commitment to the environment is anchored in three core initiatives: leveraging our high-profile brand in the city of Atlanta & state of Georgia to promote large-scale public initiatives that further green causes; partnering with the Georgia Dome to make our game day home as environmentally-friendly as possible; walking the talk as a business and as individuals, proactively reducing our environmental footprint at our organization's facilities via policy changes and aggressive "green" programs.
## WALKING THE TALK
The Falcons have taken the following measures as an organization to reduce waste, conserve energy and limit their use of finite resources:
At team headquarters in Flowery Branch, a retention pond is used to water the football fields and some public areas (86,000 gallons per watering). No public water is used in the irrigation process. * All T-12 bulbs at team headquarters have been replaced with T-8 or T-5, and all incandescent bulbs have been replaced with compact fluorescent alternatives. * All fluorescent lamps and batteries are recycled - about 350 annually. * The Falcons organization recycles an average of 9,500 pounds of waste (paper and plastic) per month. * Recycling receptacles are located throughout the team headquarters building in Flowery Branch, and a small bin is placed at each staff member's workspace. * All Falcons business cards, letterhead and envelopes are now made of 100% post-consumer waste. * All janitorial products used at the Falcons Flowery Branch facility are made of recycled products, including the trash bags. * The Falcons save and re-use incoming shipment boxes and packaging. * The Falcons use internal office shredded paper as filler for shipments leaving Flowery Branch. * The Falcons have replaced most of the bottled water used at team headquarters with filtered water dispensers. * Dasani plant bottles are used for all remaining bottled water. * Motion sensor light switches have been installed in most offices to reduce electrical usage. * The Falcons Indoor Practice Facility lights are on a timer to prevent unnecessary energy usage. * Flowery Branch main campus building and player housing thermostats are on permanent energy-conservation settings. * All energy usage is tracked and analyzed, and annual goals are established based on historical usage. * Green Natura products (corn-based shampoo bottles and waste-reducing soap) are used in player housing buildings. * The Falcons partnered with FieldTurf (manufacturers of the Georgia Dome playing surface) to establish a shoe recycling program prior to games at the Georgia Dome. * The Falcons helped implement a game day recycling program at the Georgia Dome, providing recycling bins throughout all fan concourses. * All dining flatware used for meals at team headquarters is produced from 100% recycled material. * All printers throughout the Falcons organization are defaulted to print double-sided, black and white copies. * Pro-environmental FAQs are placed each year in high-visibility areas throughout the facility during Training Camp open practices. * Falcons associates are encouraged to use Century Gothic font, which has been shown to reduce toner consumption, as their default font when sending email. * The Falcons take into consideration an organization's "green" commitments when evaluating potential business partners.
## GREEN NEWS
## WHAT YOU CAN DO
## GREEN EVENTS
Monday, March 26, 2012 – Park Pride’s Park & Greenspace Conference @ Atlanta Botanical Gardens)
