The National Football League is no longer a rookie at intercepting carbon.

Rearing up for its third annual carbon-neutral Super Bowl, set for Feb. 4 in Miami, the NFL is planting 3.5 acres of trees. In doing so, the league intends to offset about 260 tons of carbon it estimates is created from the country’s single-largest sporting event.

This year, an undisclosed company is also planning to donate renewable energy credits to the Miami Dolphins stadium.

“Certain things are individual responsibilities and certain things are ours because we created this event,” says Jack Groh, NFL’s environmental program coordinator.

Groh spoke recently at Corporate Climate Response in New York City about the NFL’s charge to get the special events industry to clean up its act. After 14 years of effort to reduce material and food waste at the Super Bowl, the league eased into the tree planting business.

With help from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, the Princeton Carbon Mitigation Center and the U.S. Forest Service, the NFL determined the number of trees it would take to offset the carbon generated from the Super Bowl.

According to Groh, the league spends an annual $2,000 on tree seedlings and close to $30,000 in human resources to implement tree plantings in Super Bowl host cities. It works with local schools, nonprofits and private land owners to find suitable planting grounds and to plant the trees.

“You can’t do checkbook environmentalism and expect it to leave a legacy,” Groh says. “It’s not cost-effective. Our objective has always been to use local resources to make these kinds of projects happen, and to make the projects themselves sustainable.”

Groh says the league is working to implement recycling programs at all NFL team stadiums. When asked about measures the NFL is taking to increase energy-efficiency and green building practices at stadiums, he says the discussion is underway.

“Within the next year to 18 months, we will have some results in that area and the incorporation of renewables,” Groh says.