What’s the Environmental Impact of the Super Bowl?
- The Super Bowl is a massive sporting and cultural event with a substantial environmental impact.
- Travel-related emissions, especially from commercial and private flights, are the largest contributors to the event’s carbon footprint—accounting for up to 80% of total emissions.
- Stadium operations, broadcasts, and festivities also add to the environmental impact, but on a smaller scale compared to travel.
- Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans saw 65,719 fans, many traveling by air, further increasing emissions.
- Recent sustainability efforts include expanding public transit, encouraging carpooling, and piloting electric shuttles.
- These initiatives reflect a growing commitment to addressing environmental concerns, although significant challenges persist.
The Super Bowl is many things at once. It’s a football game, obviously—but also a cultural ritual, a media spectacle, a week-long festival, and a multibillion-dollar economic engine. For one night each year, more than 120 million viewers worldwide tune in, tens of thousands of fans fly across the country, cities transform themselves, and brands unleash their most ambitious advertising campaigns.
What the Super Bowl has never been is small.
And scale has consequences.
Super Bowl LIX, held in New Orleans in February 2025, carried a substantial environmental footprint—from air travel emissions to energy-hungry broadcasts, water-intensive operations, and hundreds of tons of waste. At the same time, it also became one of the most sustainability-focused large sporting events ever staged, driven by the NFL’s NFL Green program and a coordinated host-city strategy.¹⁶
The True Carbon Cost of the Super Bowl
When people imagine the Super Bowl’s environmental impact, they often picture stadium lights, fireworks, or the halftime show. In reality, those sources pale in comparison to one dominant factor: travel.
Super Bowl LIX drew 65,719 fans to New Orleans, many flying from across the United States. Previous Super Bowl emissions analyses indicate that commercial air travel can account for up to 80% of total event-related emissions, making it the single largest climate driver of the game.³
Private aviation—used by celebrities, sponsors, and corporate partners—adds further emissions pressure, a trend increasingly highlighted in event sustainability research.
To reduce transportation impacts, organizers expanded public transit service, encouraged carpooling, and piloted electric shuttle buses, while reconfiguring rideshare zones to reduce vehicle idling.¹ Although these steps cannot eliminate aviation emissions, they signal a meaningful shift: travel emissions are now explicitly acknowledged and addressed.
The Hidden Carbon Footprint of Advertising and Media
The Super Bowl’s environmental footprint extends far beyond the stadium.
The game is one of the largest synchronized media events on Earth. National energy consumption analyses estimate that Americans alone consume tens of millions of kilowatt-hours of electricity watching the Super Bowl on television and streaming platforms, driven by screen usage and data transmission infrastructure.¹⁰
The carbon cost of advertising is even larger.
Super Bowl advertising campaigns—spanning commercial production, television broadcasts, streaming, and social amplification—generate emissions at a global scale. Analysts estimate that the digital and broadcast footprint of Super Bowl advertising reaches millions of metric tons of CO₂, driven by billions of impressions delivered across platforms.⁹
This “digital carbon footprint” remains poorly understood by the public, but it now represents one of the Super Bowl’s most significant environmental impacts.
Stadium Energy: A Net-Zero Turning Point
Despite the enormity of travel and media emissions, Super Bowl LIX marked a breakthrough in event operations energy.
On game day, Caesars Superdome reached peak electrical demand of roughly 12 megawatts, consuming tens of megawatt-hours of electricity. In past Super Bowls, that load would have generated thousands of tons of CO₂ emissions.
In 2025, those emissions were effectively eliminated.
Through a partnership with Entergy New Orleans, all electricity powering the Super Bowl—including stadium operations and official events—was sourced from 100% carbon-free energy, supplied through renewable generation feeding the local grid.¹³ This achievement made Super Bowl LIX one of the first championship events in New Orleans to operate on net-zero electricity.
Water: The Quiet Resource Challenge
Water rarely headlines sustainability conversations, but it quietly underpins the Super Bowl.
Even without irrigating natural turf, Super Bowl LIX required hundreds of thousands of gallons of water for restroom use, food preparation, cooling systems, and post-event cleaning. Pressure washing alone has historically required up to 16,000 gallons per hour, though upgraded systems reduced water use by as much as 75%.¹
Low-flow fixtures and infrastructure upgrades allowed New Orleans’ municipal system to manage demand without strain—an increasingly important factor as Super Bowls rotate through water-stressed regions.
Food, Excess, and the Climate Cost of Waste
Few sporting events rival the Super Bowl in food volume.
At Super Bowl LIX, stadium catering included tons of seafood, tens of thousands of baked goods, and massive quantities of packaged food and beverages. Historically, this excess translated directly into food waste.
In 2025, that pattern changed.
Through partnerships with Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans, the NFL coordinated food recovery from 18 Super Bowl–week events, including post-game meals prepared for teams. Refrigerated trucks ensured safe recovery and redistribution.¹⁴
By the end of Super Bowl week, more than $800,000 worth of food and materials had been donated—more than doubling recovery totals from the previous Super Bowl.⁴
From a climate standpoint, this effort prevented methane emissions associated with food waste decomposition in landfills while delivering immediate community benefits.
Waste: Designing for a Circular Economy
Large sporting events often generate hundreds of tons of landfill waste. Super Bowl LIX treated waste as a design challenge rather than an inevitability.
Approximately 250 tons of materials were recovered, recycled, composted, or reused—representing a five-fold increase in material recovery compared to the previous Super Bowl.¹⁴ Organizers deployed more than 200 additional recycling stations, expanded recycling capacity by 15,000 gallons, and staffed waste stations with trained volunteers.¹
Innovative reuse initiatives stood out:
- Over 50 tons of oyster shells were collected and repurposed into artificial reefs to support Louisiana’s disappearing coastline.²
- Event signage, carpeting, and décor were donated to schools and community organizations.¹¹
- Several Super Bowl events achieved zero-waste certification, diverting more than 90% of materials from landfills.⁴
Carbon Offsets and Environmental Legacy Projects
Despite extensive mitigation, some emissions remained unavoidable.
To address these, the NFL conducted a full greenhouse gas inventory and purchased verified carbon offsets totaling approximately 3,000 metric tons of CO₂.³ Beyond offsets, Super Bowl LIX left lasting environmental benefits, including:
- 5,900 native trees planted across southeast Louisiana⁵
- Coastal and wetlands restoration projects using recycled oyster shells²
- Community greening initiatives led by volunteers months before kickoff⁵
These projects ensured that the Super Bowl’s sustainability impact endured long after the final whistle.
Super Bowl 2026: The Next Phase of Sustainable Mega-Events
Super Bowl LX, scheduled for February 2026 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, represents the next evolution in sustainable event design.
Levi’s Stadium is LEED Gold–certified and features on-site solar generation, a green roof, and a dual-plumbing system that supplies approximately 85% of stadium water needs from recycled sources, saving millions of gallons annually.¹⁰
Reusable Packaging at Scale
Super Bowl 2026 introduces reusable beverage cups at championship scale, building on successful pilots during San Francisco 49ers games. During the 2025 season, this program prevented over 32,000 disposable cups from entering landfills.⁷⁸
Smarter Recycling and Composting
AI-powered recycling systems—such as smart sorting stations—will help fans correctly separate waste, reducing contamination and improving diversion rates.⁷ California’s composting infrastructure further supports circular waste streams.
Transportation and Fan Experience
Levi’s Stadium’s access to Caltrain, VTA light rail, and regional bus networks positions transit as a primary mode for fans. Game-day tickets are expected to include free public transit access, a major step toward reducing car travel.⁹
Collectively, these initiatives position Super Bowl LX not just as another “green Super Bowl,” but as a living model for climate-conscious event design at scale.
The Big Takeaway from Sustainability and the Super Bowl
The Super Bowl may never be small—but it can be smarter.
Super Bowl LIX demonstrated that even the world’s largest sporting event can run on carbon-free electricity, dramatically reduce waste, recover surplus food, and leave behind tangible environmental benefits. With Super Bowl LX, the game continues to evolve into one of the most important real-world laboratories for sustainable, large-scale events.
References
- Sustainability practices for Super Bowl LIX – New Orleans Super Bowl Host Committee outlines waste reduction, tree planting, and coastal restoration projects in partnership with NFL Green. Super Bowl LIX Sustainability Commitments – New Orleans Host Committee
- Oyster shell reef and coastal restoration project – NFL Green supports a living shoreline project using collected oyster shells to slow Louisiana land loss. Super Bowl LIX Tackles Louisiana Land Loss With Oyster Shell Reef (Forbes)
- ENGIE Impact case study on NFL Green efforts – Detailed breakdown of sustainability metrics at Super Bowl LIX, including waste diversion and energy management. ENGIE Impact and NFL Green Super Bowl LIX Sustainability Case Study
- Five Ways Super Bowl LIX Is Tackling Sustainability – Sport Positive Summit summary of tree planting, oyster shoreline projects, and sustainability strategy around Super Bowl LIX. Five Ways Super Bowl LIX Is Tackling Sustainability (Sports Positive Summit)
- NFL Green community greening projects ahead of Super Bowl LIX – How volunteer tree planting and habitat conservation began months before the game. NFL Green Launches Community Greening Projects Ahead of Super Bowl LIX
- NFL LIX community events overview – NFL announces Super Bowl LIX community and environmental action events, including sustainability-focused legacy activities. Super Bowl LIX Community Events to Make Lasting, Positive Impact
- Reusable cup program at Levi’s Stadium – PepsiCo and the 49ers expand reusable cup initiatives, relevant to Super Bowl LX sustainability. Reusable Cup Program and Waste Reduction at Levi’s Stadium (Recycling Today)
- San Francisco 49ers & PepsiCo reusable cup partnership – Additional reporting on reusable cup rollout at Levi’s Stadium. San Francisco 49ers Launch Reusable Cup Scheme at Levi’s Stadium
- NFL sustainability preview for Super Bowl LX – Details on how reusable cups, AI recycling stations, and expanded sustainability efforts are being applied at Super Bowl LX. Sustainability at Super Bowl LX: How the NFL Is Going Green (Sustainability Magazine)
- NFL stadium sustainability context – AP News overview of broader NFL stadium efforts that include solar, recycling, and composting across multiple venues including Levi’s Stadium. From Composting to Solar Panels, NFL Stadiums Are Working to Be More Sustainable (AP News)
- Super Bowl carpet recycling example – Local initiative at Super Bowl LIX to recycle event carpet material as a demonstration of sustainable event practices. New Type of Recyclable Carpet Debuted at Super Bowl LIX (Axios)
