From growing up on reality TV and the baseball field, to a passionate pursuit to make the world a better place, Shane Keough is an inspirational breath of fresh air. Host Amy Koonin Taylor sits down with Keough to talk about the future of environmental sustainability in sports.
On how his sustainability agency got its name:
SHANE KEOUGH: “So WeGoFor2 is a sustainability agency. So obviously, growing up in sports and growing up in baseball in particular, when you go for two, you’re stretching something you already have in the bank, like a base hit, but you’re going for more. Like that base hit, you’ve already got that in the bank. You’ve got a hit that’s going to count towards your stats. Let’s stretch it out. Let’s see what else you can do. I think when I was starting that company and I was looking at names and I was always saying “we.” We got to do this. We got to get together. You can do this with us. We, together. It was very team-oriented. And I’m like, wait a second. That’s it. We all have to go for two. We all have to take a little bit extra. We have to go a little further. And then obviously, it’s a nod to the two degrees Celsius that we’re all trying to stay under here. Try to keep our planet at a habitable level.”
On what it is like to visit a landfill:
SHANE KEOUGH: “It’s one of those things that you think you’re prepared for. You can look at videos, you look at pictures, you can look at diagrams of how they’re constructed, but when you’re really there and you’re standing on what you think is just a normal hillside, and you’re looking down to this big ravine where they’re dumping, it hits you. That basin down there is visually, the low point. But there’s actually another ten stories of waste and fill underneath where your feet are. Just so you have an understanding, where you’re standing is 15 stories above the baseline. So you’re thinking about it, you’re like, wait a second. I’m on a 30 story building of trash and they’re only 30 percent filled at this landfill. This is when you really see where these minuscule, half-second choices we make between one trash or another bin or a plastic bottle or a reusable bottle lands. It’s hard to really understand what those choices mean or how much impact they have until you see where they end up.”
On how minor league baseball is embracing environmental sustainability:
SHANE KEOUGH: “So for perspective, there’s 160 minor league teams in the country. They have 10,000+ games a year that are streamed online, that have over 40 million fans a year that come out and get their butts in the seats. Obviously this year is not going to happen that way. But you see some organization, the Spokane Indians are really, really making that effort with their local utility to partner up and do composting, recycling and all these things. The Sacramento River Cats, a triple A team, they’ve done a lot of great stuff with solar. But there’s also organizations that have stepped out and made big million dollar investments in solar or LED and water reclamation. So teams are really looking to make the effort.”
On his everyday eco-friendly habit:
SHANE KEOUGH: “Reusable bottles. I can’t remember the last time I bought a water bottle. I use canteens or cups or whatever. That was my one sustainability move I tried to make about four years ago. I’m done with water bottles and I’m going to reuse as much as I can. And then kind of trickle out from there.”
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Amy Koonin Taylor is Marketing Content and Media Manager at Rubicon. To stay ahead of Rubicon’s announcements of new partnerships and collaborations around the world, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, or contact us today.
