NASCAR Embarks on Third Annual Race to Green Effort

Posted on by

NASCAR_GREEN_4C_PRT-5.jpg.rightrail

NASCAR Embarks on Third Annual Race to Green Effort

Week-Long Campaign Highlights How Industry is Helping to Protect the Environment;

Fans Can Track Their Environmental Impact at NASCAR.com/Green

To commemorate one of the most innovative and holistic sustainability platforms in the country, NASCAR® announced its third annual NASCAR Race to Green™ initiative. Beginning today and culminating with Saturday’s TOYOTA OWNERS 400 at Richmond International Raceway, NASCAR Race to Green will build awareness around the programs the governing body, industry and multiple partners have created to help protect and preserve the environment. 

This year, NASCAR and the Environmental Protection Agency are inviting fans to measure their environmental impact at NASCAR.com/green and receive tips from Official Partners on how to reduce their carbon footprint. NASCAR drivers will reward select fans who complete the online tool with personalized messages on social media using the campaign’s hashtag #NASCARGreen.

“NASCAR has the largest renewable energy, recycling and clean air programs in sports, but our sustainability platform is also about empowering fans to adopt new green-friendly behaviors,” said Brent Dewar, NASCAR chief operating officer. “NASCAR Race to Green celebrates the collective efforts of our industry and partners while teaching fans how they can contribute to a cleaner environment.”

Since 2008, NASCAR Green has planted enough trees to completely offset carbon emissions for all NASCAR national series racing for the past five years, plus the next 40 years; put more than seven million competition miles on Sunoco Green E15, a biofuel blended with 15 percent American-made ethanol from American-grown corn; and features some of the largest renewable energy projects in the world, including Pocono Raceway’s 3MW Solar Farm, the track’s primary electric energy source powering more than 250 homes.

Recent research shows NASCAR Green initiatives align with fan values. According to Experian Marketing Services’ 2014 Simmons National Consumer Study, two out of three NASCAR fans agree that each person has a personal obligation to be environmentally responsible, and four out of five fans indicate their household recycles. Additionally, a 2014 study commissioned by NASCAR and conducted by Toluna revealed that NASCAR fans are over 75 percent more likely than non-fans to support the use of ethanol blended with gasoline to fuel their own cars.

During NASCAR Race to Green week the color green will be prominently displayed on race vehicles and at tracks across NASCAR national series, NASCAR Home Tracks and International Series. The NASCAR Green mark will be featured on the A-post of race cars, pit boxes, hauler flags and NASCAR officials’ uniforms. Drivers Austin Dillon and Elliott Sadler will run green-themed paint schemes during the weekend’s national series events.

NASCAR Race to Green will also highlight the sustainability efforts of NASCAR Official Partners, who work closely with NASCAR, year-round, to amplify the reach of NASCAR Green. While NASCAR Green initiatives have and will continue to span the entire year, the following additional activities will take place throughout this week-long effort:

  • American Ethanol will celebrate five years as a NASCAR Official Partner and more than seven million miles of racing on Sunoco Green E15, the equivalent of almost 30 trips from the earth to the moon.
  • As part of national “Comcast Cares Day,” NASCAR XFINITY Series drivers will join nearly 200 volunteers from Comcast for a cleanup project at the Boys & Girls Club of Metro Richmond.
  • Mobil 1 will work with NASCAR to provide lubricant technology expertise to the broadcast compound power generators and vehicle.
  • Chevrolet will come together with Pocono Raceway and NASCAR Green to build sustainable habitats for threatened bats by repurposing recycled Chevrolet Volt battery covers. At Pocono Kids day in June local children will be able to visit the Team Chevy display and build a habitat.
  • Ford’s 20,000-square-foot display at Richmond International Raceway will “go green” and feature its line of hybrid and electric vehicles.
  • At the track each weekend Toyota Tundras house the Air Titan 2.0, NASCAR’s innovative track-drying system. The Air Titan 2.0 consumes 78 percent less fuel per hour and emits 80 percent less CO2 per hour than its predecessor. Additionally, Toyota will feature a Toyota Prius Hybrid at its at-track display, Toyota PitPass.
  • As part of a food waste diversion initiative, Richmond International Raceway, together with Sustainable America, will donate unused food to local food banks and compost used food items.
  • NASCAR and Daytona International Speedway (DIS) employees will come together on Earth Day to plant trees at Lenox Park in Daytona Beach, Floriday, in continued support of NASCAR Green’s “Clean Air Tree Planting Program” which plants trees in reforestation projects across the country.
  • A comprehensive recycling effort has accounted for approximately 120,000 Goodyear tires recycled across NASCAR’s top three national series each year; more than 200,000 gallons of oil at tracks and team shops recycled annually by Safety-Kleen; and more than 25 million bottles and cans cumulatively recycled over the past six years through collaborations with Coca-Cola and Coors Light.