Norman Vosschulte: Eagles' Fan Experience & Sustainability Director
Norman Vossschulte is originally from Berlin, Germany. His culturally rich background included ten years living abroad in Africa, Iraq and Spain before moving back to Germany to finish High School and College. He studied Biology and Physical Science before deciding to move to New York City in 1996 to attend the Herbert Berghof Institute for Fine Theatre Arts and Drama.
Norman’s work experience is as eclectic as his upbringing. He has worked in the hotel industry, the non-profit industry, as well as both sports and entertainment industries. 25 years of practicing customer and client relations, has given him an overview of which techniques consistently enhance guest experiences. Norman has over 16 years of staff training and team leadership experience working with The Walt Disney Company and currently the Philadelphia Eagles.
In 2014, Norman became the official GO GREEN spokesperson and began leading the green team for the Philadelphia Eagles. During his tenure the Eagles obtained LEED Gold certification and were the first sports team in the world to obtain ISO20121 certification. He organized and re-branded the initiative as the GO GREEN ECO Committee (Engagement, Communication, Operations) to involve the entire organization. One of the main missions of the ECO Committee is to Innovate & Sustain. The Eagles are now the first sports team to actively invest in the ocean by offsetting carbon emissions from player travel by planting sea grass.
Norman Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss:
How the strong sustainability program for the Eagles began and evolved
Material issues and initiatives of the Eagles’ sustainability program
How the Eagles have achieved 99.9% of waste diversion
The approach to engaging fans in sustainability
Utilization of the hydrogen refueling station
Ideas for making sustainability more mainstream across sports
Norman’s Final Five Questions Responses:
What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?
I love this question. Sustainability professionals are at heart, a lot of the ones I meet at least, scientists. They're folks that have either studied this or are really in tune with some of the data and some of the science behind sustainability. A lot of those folks that really live and breathe sustainability every day, their language doesn't necessarily easily translate into sports because we speak the language of fans and teams. So in the sustainability sector, you have to find people that can bridge that gap and literally put into very simple terms some of these sustainability practices that you are trying to bring to a sports team. Every one of us has to figure out how we can translate a lot of this incredible sustainability language into an everyday language so that everyone will understand it and actions. Because actions have to be taken.
What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?
I'm excited that finally it seems like everyone is talking about it. We have some of our mainstream partners that come to us now and say, “Hey, we want to work with you on sustainability.” That's exciting to me because before that, if you had a sustainability partner that was already working in the sustainability space, of course they would talk about sustainability with you, but mainstream partners necessarily didn't. My biggest excitement is Gen Z, the new generation who are now the majority in the workplace and are the ones that are really pushing this agenda. I don't want them to stop because it's important, and because it's their kids who are going to inherit this planet when a lot of these predictions about climate change are going to come true. Gen Z is really pushing this agenda because they're the consumers, they're the clients now, they're the fans. It's important to us and it's important to them and their generation. They're the information generation that loves to post on social media, and it excites me. I think there's a real movement happening, and I don't want it to stop.
What is one book you'd recommend sustainability leaders read?
The Routledge Handbook of Sport and Sustainable Development. It basically dives into the United Nations climate pledge document that was written a few years ago that we actually were part of and that a lot of sports leagues and sports teams in the world have signed onto now. It addresses pretty much every area of sustainability, like waste and climate. We wrote one of those chapters in that book. Anthony Bonagura, one of our directors, actually wrote it and I helped a little bit. It was used in college education, but it’s now available for purchase. It dives into a lot of the science and the data, the United Nations force for climate change pledge program that's out there, and that a lot of leagues in the world, including FIFA and the NFL have signed on to.
What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?
Our sustainability consultant! We have an amazing sustainability consultant, Lindsay Arell. She was the CEO of Honeycomb Strategies that was recently sold to SMG, a huge global venue operator. She now helps us with FIFA 26. The World Cup is coming to Philadelphia, and there's quite a few sustainability initiatives that we're working on with FIFA, and she's helping us work through that. She helped us with our LEED certification and she's in the middle of helping us to be recertified. I'm not an expert, we're no expert, she is. We always go to her for all the advice. I think it's really important to find someone who lives and breathes this stuff, but who can translate like I said that earlier, that language to us so we can understand it. What should we, what shouldn't we invest in? What should we spend time on, what should we bring to our partners? We really run everything by her. It's really important to have partners and to have folks in your corner who know what they're talking about and who you trust, because again, we don't know what we should and shouldn't be doing. It's really important to ask professionals in this space.
Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the sustainability work being done at the Philadelphia Eagles?
Philadelphiaeagles.com. If you go there and you click on community, there is a page called Go Green, pun intended. We call our sustainability program Go Green. We are all about innovating and sustaining and the website is a really good source of information.