The NASCAR Green Summit 2013 came to Chicago today. It was keynoted by Retired General Wesley Clark, Former Vice President Al Gore, NASCAR President Mike Helton and NASCAR Chairman & CEO Brian France.
NASCAR Green has grown exponentially as an environmental awareness platform. NASCAR Green encompasses the largest recycling, tree planting and renewable energy programs in all of sports. It also put nearly five million competition miles on Sunoco Green E15, a biofuel blended with 15 percent American-made ethanol made from American-grown corn.
Clark is perhaps ethanol’s biggest advocate (read about that here) According to a 2013 study commissioned by NASCAR and conducted by Toluna, NASCAR fans are approximately twice as likely as non-fans to indicate their household is very green – always looking for new ways to positively impact the environment.
“We take an enormous amount of pride in the collective effort that has been put forth across our entire industry to positively impact the environment over the last half decade,” said France. “It’s our mission to pass along a cleaner and healthier environment for generations to come by championing sustainable behavior to our millions of fans.”
“We’re doing it, and we’re going to be more intense about it,” said Dr. Mike Lynch Managing Director of Green Innovation for NASCAR.
“What we do now going forward for the next little bit of time is going to have a huge impact on the future.”
Al Gore and Brian France worked closely on NASCAR Green, the latest summit being held today at Venue 610 on Michigan Avenue in Chicago.
“We started out with a plan that the Vice President was very helpful with, as a matter of fact, Vice President Gore (more on his speech today) put in the original vision and we’ve achieved way beyond what I would have thought,” said Brian France about NASCAR Green.
According to the Official NASCAR Fan Council, approximately three out of four avid NASCAR fans are aware of NASCAR Green and believe it shows NASCAR cares about the environment.
The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup opener is at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet on Sunday, Sept. 15 (1 p.m. CDT, ESPN).
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An analyst for 95.7 The Fan, he also writes on Chicago sports media for Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and Facebook.