SportTechie’s Athletes Voice series features the views and opinions of the athletes who use and are powered by technology. SportTechie caught up with Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Brent Suter on Earth Day to discuss his passion for environmental initiatives.
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Brent Suter graduated from Harvard with a dual environmental science and public policy degree in 2012, the same year the Brewers picked him in the 31st round of the MLB draft. His professional plans to work to protect the environment have been put on hold while he pursues a baseball career.
A left-handed starting pitcher, Suter made his big league debut in 2016 and had a 3.91 career ERA over three seasons before tearing the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow. He underwent Tommy John surgery on Jul. 31, 2018, and is rehabbing to possibly return to action near the end of the 2019 season. Sidelined by injury, he’s been devoting his additional time to #StrikeOutWaste, an eco-friendly initiative he created with his cousin.
Suter wrote an op-ed for Fast Company last October about the urgency of fighting climate change while advocating for collaborative efforts to combat it. This spring, he partnered with Zulu Athletic to supply his Brewers teammates with reusable water bottles. Earlier this week, he made a series of appearances on behalf of Major League Baseball on Earth Day, including a telephone interview with SportTechie.
Protecting the Planet
“My freshman year of high school, I watched that Al Gore An Inconvenient Truth documentary, and that opened my eyes to what’s going on with the planet. I had no idea. Sure enough, I did the research, it looks like the science was backing it up. It became a cause near and dear to my heart. I’ve been wanting to go into the environmental sector ever since then. But obviously baseball was a priority, so now I’m trying to use the platform as a way to spread the message.
“I care a lot about it, and hopefully we can do some things to help the Earth be viable for many millennia to come. At this point, I think it’s 97 or 98 percent of scientists are in agreement that it’s man-made climate change we’re seeing. It set off the spark that we’ve got to do something. I started really thinking about my choices in day-to-day life and continue to this day thinking about them. Am I perfect environmentally? Absolutely not. But I try to be conscious of it and improve what I can and make some lasting change in my life rather than just a two-week stint and drop it.”
Making Sustainable Choices
“Definitely the reusable water bottles and reusable meal trays rather than the plastic and styrofoam they sometimes have in clubhouses. We use reusable grocery bags. We’ve got solar panels on our house that pretty much have wiped out our electricity bill, which is great. We’re composting every day. We compost veggies, other food scraps besides meat and dairy. Even junk mail you can compost, and that’s a really big change environmentally.
“I turn off lights when I leave the room—simple stuff like turn off the faucet, try to buy organic, locally grown produce whenever possible and try to eat less meat. I cut out beef entirely out of my diet just because, no offense to cows, but they’re really tough environmentally. They consume a lot of resources, and they burp and belch a lot of stuff, so I avoid eating those bad boys.”
Clubhouse Support
“I didn’t get ribbed that much for my Tupperware and my bottle at all when I got called up, and I haven’t gotten much since, just the occasional fun ribbing. The really cool response was when I went around asking teammates if they want to do StrikeOutWaste and use a reusable water bottle that we can get them instead of the cups and plastic bottles at the facility. Over 100 guys responded with a resounding yes. We shipped over 100 out to the guys and saw a pretty big dent in our spring training plastic usage, so that was a pretty cool sign that the guys were on-board. I’m looking to increase that number in the next couple of months and years.”
“My cousin and I talked about the #StrikeOutWaste campaign a couple years ago, so we got the Twitter handle and the Instagram handle covered. After that, we just said let’s play it by ear and see when the time was right. Sure enough, I had a couple years in the big leagues so I was semi-established with my teammates, and then I had this injury, which is unfortunate, but you just try to use the extra time for good. We started to roll out this spring, and eventually we want to get everybody on board, including all of MLB, using bottles in the games and the clubhouse rather than the single-use cups and plastics.”
League-Wide Environmental Action
“Hopefully one day, we can get all MLB parks going compost instead of having all that trash. All that food waste can be composted, which would be awesome to see. MLB has taken a lot of good steps with their sustainability office. I think 20,000 tons of waste were diverted from landfills last year alone. So there’s progress being made.
“A bunch of stadiums actually have some sort of solar-panel capacity, which is great. I think 18 teams now have LED lights, which is really much better for energy than the old stadium lights. A bunch of teams are using gardens for helping supply their concessions, which is obviously local, organically grown produce and really cool to see. Not only are the Nationals going all-compost with their concession Tupperware and their concession cups, but they also have a roof garden, which helps with their concession supply, so they’re doing big things.
“MLB is putting their money where their mouth is in a lot of instances where they’re giving back and donating to these environmental causes. A lot has been done and continues to be done, but we have a long ways to go.”
Convincing Climate Skeptics
“I try not to get too doomsday with it in my explanation, but I do [share] the real, tangible stuff you can see, like the plastic in the ocean. That’s undeniable. The changing and rising sea level—some things that are happening are undeniable. You explain ‘Why do you think that is?’ ‘OK, it’s a natural cycle.’ ‘Well, the natural cycle hasn’t been that sharp in the Earth’s history.’
“But you can focus on the common ground that you have with them, maybe the plastic waste in the sea as a common-sense type thing. You start saying ‘OK, here’s what you can do about plastic waste.’ And then maybe that gets them interested and plants a seed for more awareness and more environmental consciousness. Then eventually it can maybe soften their heart or soften their stance on it where they say, ‘You know what, we are taking from nature like it’s a cookie jar rather than a life partner.’
“I’m still trying to work out the best way to really hammer home the points. You can’t get too stuck on trying to be right or wrong. You just try to convey your point and how and why you live your life the way you do.”
Extra Climate Credit
“I joined Players for the Planet which is another great, baseball-centric organization started by Chris Dickerson. I’ve been involved with them quite a bit and some community programs in Milwaukee right now, like Urban Ecology [Center], the Outrider Foundation in Madison, and ECO in the city of Milwaukee, which is a government organization helping to make sure water is clean and energy is being used cleanly. It’s been cool to explore these partnerships, but I’m looking to help out however I can and am looking for more—bigger action, bigger change.
“There’s a bunch of cool programs going on in Milwaukee. The Urban Ecology Center is probably my favorite. There are three sites in Milwaukee where they’ve taken wasteland and turned it into vibrant natural space. They take urban youth there for field trips, for hiking trips, clean-ups and community trips. It’s really so cool to see the kids getting connected with nature and really putting on their heart the environmental cause and love of nature.
“Hopefully [retirement is] way down the road, but I really want to go into the environmental sector somehow. Maybe being an environmental consultant or maybe even working in a sustainability office for a sports league since I have a background in sports now—just something along those lines where I’m trying to make the planet a better place would be where I want to work.”
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