• Article
• Apr 28, 2015

In celebration of Earth Day and Arbor Day, the NFL passed the “Golden Shovel” from the Arizona Host Committee to the Super Bowl 50 Host Committee, symbolizing the greening of Super Bowl. 

Arizona held its final two urban forestry events last week to close out the environmental initiatives for Super Bowl XLIX. As done for several years, the previous host community passes the symbolic shovel on to the next host community and also donates one tree to the next Super Bowl host city. Arizona has donated a Fruitless Olive tree to this event – a tree that is common to both the Bay area and to Arizona.

The tree was planted at the Hillcrest Elementary School in San Francisco with the help of the Friends of the Urban Forest, the San Francisco Unified School District and NFL partner Verizon.

For more than a decade, the National Football League has addressed the environmental impact of Super Bowl operations, beginning with an in-stadium solid waste recycling in preparation for Super Bowl XXVIII in Atlanta. Since that time, the NFL’s environmental efforts have evolved and expanded to become a comprehensive program of reuse, recovery and community projects in each Super Bowl host community.