The greenest path through the NCAA men’s basketball tournament may be one that’s painted red — as in University of Louisville Cardinal red.
Or neon orange, if you work for Adidas.
A Virginia-based consulting firm, Booz Allen Hamilton, has calculated energy use from all the different tournament bracket combinations. And the one that takes Louisville to the championship game in Atlanta on April 8 produces the lowest carbon dioxide emissions for March Madness.
The biggest factor is that the Cardinals just won’t be traveling very far, said Pittsburgh-based Joe Marriott, lead associate with the company, which consults with the government and businesses on management, intelligence and technology. ...
Consults with the government on intelligence? Insert joke about Congress here.
[U of L spokesman Mark] Hebert said the company’s calculations, which can be accessed through an interactive website, provide “an interesting twist on how to fill out your brackets.”
He suggested fans across the country who are environmentally aware may want to consider rooting for Louisville. ...
Only if your personal discount rate is zero. The tournament is over in a month but climate change may not happen until 35 years or so.
“Like most great ideas, it started because we didn’t want to do our actual work,” Marriott said. “We were sitting around the office talking about things people talk about, and we thought, here is a really interesting way to apply what we do every day to this really popular event.
Kindof like how this blog started ... let's see ... how can we get away with writing fewer papers?
The analysis factors in all possible outcomes from tournament games and calculates the carbon footprint for each team as it travels on its journey.
A U of L win would represent an estimated total tournament carbon footprint of about 152,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. That’s about the same as driving 32,000 passenger cars for 11,500 miles or powering 7,800 homes for a year, the company calculated.
So, the NCAA might consider adopting a home court advantage for the first week of games, like the NIT does, cutting travel by about half.
But, there currently aren't enough incentives to reduce NCAA travel (see conference realignment). This is clearly ... get ready for the part about making this less fun ... a job for the carbon tax!