DALLAS, TX – Pickleball is going green thanks to Veolia Environmental Services, which will provide solutions to water, waste, and energy to promote sustainability for the PPA and its tournaments. 

Greening up the PPA is no easy task, but Veolia North America's Chief Sustainability Officer, Dave Ross, is setting his sights on making that objective a reality.

The company’s goals for the 2024 pickleball season are crystal clear. 

“The number one thing you notice with sporting events at the end of the night is the big pile of plastic bottles overflowing the waste bin, so we want to drive the use of renewable water bottles by providing more water refill stations and encouraging people to not use plastic bottles to make sporting events more sustainable,” explained Ross.

It doesn’t stop there. Veolia staffers are sustainability experts, so they’ll also be examining waste management from vendors, food trucks, and tournament transportation to establish a carbon offset program.

“What we’ll do is take a look at a carbon accounting and then start making recommendations as to how to become more carbon mindful as the event goes forward. And you don’t just do that overnight, you do it holistically for the tournament and the PPA itself,” shared Ross. 

Most importantly, Veolia is especially excited about the educational component of their plan. Given pickleball’s growing popularity, they see the sport as a facilitator to make the nation more sustainability conscious.

“The people who attend the tournaments and play pickleball will bring sustainability awareness into the community. That's where the power is going to be,” said Ross. 

Pickleball tournaments occupy a unique space in terms of attendees. For example, spectators at NBA or NFL games aren't necessarily avid basketball or football players themselves. They might play pick-up games from time to time and throw the football around in the yard, or they’re former high school or collegiate athletes, but the majority of people in attendance don't play these sports on a daily basis. Pickleball, however, is a big exception.

Those who attend pickleball tournaments likely play multiple times per week. Pickleball is a part of their daily routine. That’s where Veolia can make a real difference in terms of educating tournament goers about sustainability.

“Because of it's position as a sport in this country, there’s really a lot of impact potential in that space. That’s what we’re pretty excited about,” explained Ross.

As the leading environmental solutions provider, Veolia will help pickleball become America’s leading green sport.

“How often do you go to the court to play with four people and you all showed up in four cars and drove from six blocks away? How often do you bring a plastic water bottle instead of a refillable one? Or individually run errands instead of saving them up and making your grocery run before or after your play pickleball?” asked Ross. 

“Take a moment to be reflective as you’re playing pickleball and see if you can be more sustainable. It’s all those daily decisions that you can make to be just a little bit incrementally better in your daily life. You might just reduce your carbon emission and carbon footprint,” he continued. “That’s why our company picked pickleball. It really reaches into mainstream America. It’s the neighborhood sport right now.”

The future of pickleball is definitely looking green.