US Open Green Initiatives: A Fan Perspective
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Last Updated on: 27th August 2025, 01:16 am
Having lived in Queens for over two decades, I have always wanted to go to the nearby US Open Tennis Championships, but something always seemed to come up. Last week, I finally made it out for Fan Week. I was able to watch intense qualifying matches and some of the world’s best players practice, like former champion and local phenom Naomi Osaka.
However, beyond all the action on the courts, I was also interested in what efforts were being made at this high-profile event to be more environmentally friendly. Looking at the green initiatives on their website, the list is too extensive to go into detail here. From efficient LEED Certified stadiums down to recycling used racket string, the amount of effort that went into reducing the environmental impact had to be significant. However, the execution was even more impressive.
Transportation
Getting there is easy. Transfer to the 7, get off at Mets Willets Point station, walk the opposite direction from Citi Field, and you are there. Alternatively, LIRR trains and buses also stop there. Not only is taking electrified mass transit possible here, but it’s also often faster, more convenient, and much less expensive than the $40 parking fee.
For a major live event with international participants, some air travel is unavoidable. However, hosting the event at a major international hub not only increases convenience but also reduces emissions from air travel. A substantial part of total air travel emissions come from takeoff and landing. By reducing the number of stops and reducing the distance travelled by using a more direct path, emissions from flying can be significantly reduced. If I was planning a major live event and trying to reduce carbon emissions, selecting a location with convenient mass transit and direct flights would be a key consideration.
Reducing Waste
There was a clear effort to eliminate single-use plastic waste. Food packaging and napkins tended to be made from compostable recycled paper, often with environmental messages. Ticketing was paperless, with complimentary mobile chargers available to borrow ensuring that people still had enough charge to get into the events.
The plastic cutlery given out with product samples and within the food court was made from compostable PLA. PLA (or Polylactic Acid) is a polymer of the same chemical that makes your muscles sore after lifting weights and makes yogurt taste tangy. It is still a thermoplastic (often used for 3D printing), but not all plastics are created equal. PLA is derived from carbohydrates in plants, rather than from petroleum, and it avoids many of the problematic chemicals found in other plastics. It is not perfect and does not break down quickly in low temperatures or low oxygen levels. However, it biodegrades in the warm, oxygen-rich environment of commercial composting, and New York City has municipal composting.
Cocktails were served in souvenir plastic glasses that were of sufficient quality that people actually wanted to take them home and reuse them. I personally didn’t see any of them being thrown away. There were some product samples, but they were also of high enough quality and utility that they didn’t just end up in the trash. For example, the sunscreen samples from La Roche-Posay were, in my opinion, some of the best I have ever used and a good size for travel.
Meanwhile, people were allowed to bring in water bottles, and filling stations were more convenient than waiting in line to buy water. I saw more people using refillable bottles than buying bottles. Plastic water bottles were still available from Evian, but they were made out of 100% recycled PET. The $7–9 cost also provided an incentive to refill rather than buy. Recycling receptacles were also prolific, and New York City has municipal recycling.
Merchandise & Clothing
Beyond the recycled water bottles, some of the merchandise was also made from recycled plastic. In addition, the Polo-branded ball crew uniforms were made from recycled plastic. I assume (or at least hope) that these uniforms were comfortable, as the ball crew had to stand in the hot sun for hours at a time. Items made out of recycled plastic are important, as it creates a market and increases the likelihood that items sorted for plastic recycling are actually recycled, rather than ending up in waste streams. Moving forward, it would be great to see more recycled plastic items being offered.
Electric Vehicles
While the electric vehicle people use in NYC the most is a subway train, Cadillac had a display with only electric vehicles. Clearly, they were taking a page out of Tesla’s playbook to create their own four-letter acronym. They did not overemphasize the environmental aspect, and several people seemed surprised to find out that the vehicles they were looking at were EVs. I sat in an enormous ~$155,000 Escalade IQ. While this kind of vehicle is largely irrelevant to me personally and undoubtedly not the most efficient EV on the road, the emissions savings compared to a similarly massive ICE vehicle must be significant.
Final Thoughts
After the qualifying matches died down for the day, we went one stop up to Flushing Main Street to grab some Vietnamese food. Over dinner, I asked a friend who was with us what she thought about the green initiatives at the US Open. She had no idea what I was talking about. When I went through some of the different aspects, the response was that it just made sense and wasn’t noticeable if you were not looking for it.
The seemingly effortless execution of the green initiatives was perhaps the most impressive part. Environmental impact was being reduced while the experience was made better and more convenient. It didn’t try to attract massive attention and didn’t come off as greenwashing. It just made sense when you thought about it, but you didn’t have to think about it.
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