A typical National Football League (NFL) stadium uses enough electricity in a year to power about 1,000 average U.S. homes, leaving some football teams with annual power bills of more than a million dollars.

But two NFL franchises, the Washington Redskins and Seattle Seahawks, are sacking their energy demand with clean energy technology, saving money and the environment, and inspiring players to start their own green initiatives. You can watch the full segment by clicking the video below:

FedEx Field, home to the Redskins, is now getting 20 percent of its electricity on game days and 100 percent on other days, from a new solar array in the parking lot built in partnership with NRG Energy. Redskins owner Dan Snyder thinks the project, the largest in the NFL, is an opportunity for his team to set an example for the rest of the league. “Other teams will see this and say this is the future – we need to be doing this,” he said. 

In Seattle, the Seahawks are using more renewable energy, much more efficiently. The team installed the NFL's first stadium solar array, 4,000 tube-shaped panels atop a building next to CenturyLink Field, and uses a centralized control system to control every light and scoreboard in the stadium. Combined, these measures are cutting annual energy usage by more than 20 percent. 

These initiatives were the idea of Seahawks owner and Microsoft cofounder, Paul Allen. He is a driving force behind the greening of professional sports, and his Green Sports Alliance has brought together representatives from every major American sports league. 

The alliance’s co-founder, Alan Hershkowitz, says his group found that 18 percent of Americans say they pay attention to science, while 56 percent of Americans say they pay attention to sports.  “If you want to influence American culture, are you going to send scientists…or are you going to send a message to the supply chain that solar panels are being put on football stadiums,” he asked. 

Clean energy also seems to be catching on among NFL players. Redskins Linebacker Lorenzo Alexander supports the team’s efforts and has a green lifestyle of his own, driving a hybrid Toyota Prius to practice every day. According to him, the Redskins’ clean energy initiative will catch on in the NFL. “I’ll guarantee you, soon to follow, other teams will start doing it because this is a copycat league whether you’re playing football or on the business side of it,” Alexander said.