We live in a day and age where going green and watching your impact on the environment is becoming a smarter, easier, and profitable choice. Modern music stars such as Radiohead and Jack Johnson are imploring their fans to lessen their environmental impact and trying to lessen their own impact through massive tours across the nation and world. Earlier this year, the Michigan Summer Beer Festival decided to be a zero-waste beer festival. In Cincinnati, the College of Mount St. Joseph is installing a green roof on the second largest building on campus, the Archbishop Alter Library.

Folsom Field on the University of Colorado campus is getting into the game by pledging to produce "zero waste" at home games. Among some of the parts of this "zero waste" program are no trashcans, valet parking for bikers, and compostable nacho trays. This initiative will make Folsom Field the first major sports program (college-related or otherwise) to undertake such an agenda.

The goal is to have 90 percent of waste composted, with nearly every food or drink sold in Folsom packaged in recyclable or compostable containers made by Eco-Products Inc., a Boulder company that specializes in biodegradable products such as sugarcane plates and corn cutlery. There will be 50 odd recycling stations manned by student volunteers throughout the park, as well as the university's Reserve Officers' Training Corps to help clean up after games. All compost will go back to CU for landscaping. The project is going to be radical change from last year, when more than two tons of cardboard and 53.2 tons of waste were collected, compared to a mere 11 tons of recycling.

Bronson Hilliard, a CU spokesman, said that fans won't be chastised for bringing cardboard or non-recyclable products into the park. Because there will be no trash cans on campus, the fans bring non-recyclable products will have no choice but to dump their garbage into the recycling bins, which will have to be plucked out after the games. A little inconvenient, but a step in the right direction. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Folsom's effort could save up to 455 million BTUs (British Thermal Units) of energy-the equivalent of four U.S. households.

CU's efforts at Folsom Field is part of a long tradition of environmental protection on campus, starting in 1970 when students organized the nation's first student-led environmental center on Earth Day in Boulder. Earlier this year, the university demanded that all student-funded events with food be zero-waste, as well as doing away with plastic bags for grab-and-go meals. Every student would be given free reusable bags. CU's next step is going to be investing in local carbon-reduction projects to compensate for energy used to power the stadium and for the football team's travel.