Their uniforms may not reflect it, but the Houston Dynamo are going green.
The Dynamo's gameday experience will be extra eco-friendly for Saturday's game against Real Salt Lake in what the Dynamo hope will be a harbinger of things to come.
On Saturday, the Dynamo will give away 5,000 reusable grocery bags, courtesy of H-E-B, at Saturday night's game and will also place Waste Management recycling bins on the stadium concourse. Special $20 Grow Green tickets are also available, of which $10 will go to Trees For Houston, a non-profit organization devoted to planting trees in the Houston area.
"There are a lot of issues like global warming, but recycling is something easy we can all do," Dynamo forward Nate Jaqua said. "You can drive less, and you can look at how much you waste every day, and people can reduce just a little bit, and it all helps."
Jaqua and team captain Wade Barrett will give fans recycling tips in a special scoreboard video message, the latest in the team's move toward being more environmentally friendly. Earlier this season, in tandem with a recycling public service announcement, Dynamo players began sorting their locker room recyclables. Later this season, on November 10, the Dynamo will partner with Trees For Houston, H-E-B and the CW 39 to plant trees at J.P. Henderson Elementary School, located near the site of the Dynamo's proposed downtown stadium.
Appropriately, the proposed stadium could be part of the Dynamo's plan to become a more eco-friendly organization, Dynamo president / general manager Oliver Luck said.
"We are committed to being an environmentally conscious organization, and the new stadium could be a big part of that," Luck said, pointing to the fact that parent company AEG recently installed solar panels atop the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
"We intend to be sustainable, and we hope to work with Waste Management and our other partners at facilities like the Houston Amateur Sports Complex and our future stadium to achieve that goal."
Jaqua, who hails from the environmentally friendly town of Eugene, Oregon, said he hopes the Dynamo and other organizations in Houston can improve awareness of environmental issues.
"I feel bad when people have to throw away all their bottles, and you have nowhere to recycle them," Jaqua said. "I guess you can take them to a couple of places, but people don't always know."
The Dynamo and their partners, including jersey sponsor Amigo Energy, which will be providing information about its renewable energy products at Dynamo games, hope to help spread the word to the Houston area: Grow Green.
