Products of Change members, Team GB and Liverpool FC are no strangers to setting a few personal bests when it comes to the sustainable development of sport. Ahead of the POC Conference (6 November at the Royal Geographical Society), Licensing Sports Book peers into the world of sports sustainability at scale.
Imagine the sight, all 327 Team GB athletes piling through London King’s Cross and cramming onto the Eurostar the morning of the opening ceremony. Imagine if there’d been a cancellation. Or a double booking of seats.
Far be it with me to argue with an Olympian over their seat reservation.
As unlikely as it all sounds, these are situations Team GB staff would have taken into consideration as it made its commitment in 2023 to cut its emissions and travel to the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games by train.
They wouldn’t have been alone in such an endeavour, either. We know ‘travel’ was a major part of the gameplan among Paris 2024 organisers to deliver the ‘greenest Olympic Games’ in modern history. It’s why over 80% of the competition’s venues were kept within 10km of the Olympic Village itself, extensive use was made of the city’s public transport network, and why the city invested in over 400km of new bike lanes.
Paris 2024 had long made its intention clear to halve the average emissions produced by London 2012 and Rio 2016 (remembering that each averaged around 3.5 million metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent) and thus highlight the subject of sustainability in sport on a global scale that simply couldn’t be ignored.
Team GB secured 65 medals in total in Paris – just rewards for the years of dedication, preparation and sacrifice made by athletes to compete on the world’s stage. But as meticulous as their training may be, so too are the efforts going on behind the scenes when it comes to measuring and reducing Team GB’s collective environmental footprint.
“We’ve done the simple stuff, like cutting down on single use plastics and increasing recycling in our offices, as well as taking a strong approach to end of life cycles for the materials we use, particularly at Games time,” says Scott Field, Team GB’s director of marketing and communications (pictured).
The organisation is on a pathway towards some ambitious climate goals which includes the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50% by 2030 and to achieve net zero by 2040. To achieve this, work is now well underway on a carbon reduction strategy in partnership with the University of Hull, while Team GB continues to “work hard with partners such as adidas to cut down on waste and ensure products are increasingly sustainable.”
Partnerships like these are now laying the groundwork for a more sustainable journey towards Los Angeles 2028 and even Brisbane 2032, where the focus will be on circular economic systems such as equipment rental and waste reduction.
Like Paris 2024’s sustainability journey, it’s not all been plain sailing for Team GB whose decision to receive investment from and partner with British Gas (despite having switched to renewable energy itself in 2019) prompted some large (and reasonable) questions to be asked. Corporate sponsorship rarely goes without a hiccup and among its own foibles, questions have too been asked over the exclusive beverage rights handed to Coca-Cola for the duration of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics.
Sure, the brand delivered on some high reuse targets, but for some, the sale of some 6.4 million single-use plastic bottles is not something to be glanced over.
But hitting sustainability targets on an event of such magnitude is an achievement not to be readily dismissed. And if anyone knows about sporting sustainability on the grand scale, it’s Products of Change member Liverpool FC which, in April this year, picked up the Environmental Sustainability Award at the FEVO Sport Industry Awards in recognition of the club’s leadership within the area.
The club’s sustainability strategy, The Red Way – a programme that this spring published its second ever annual report – acts to leave no stone unturned, whether that’s across Liverpool FC’s day-to-day and operational emissions (its scope 1 and 2 emissions) or those across its expansive supplier base (its scope 3 emissions).
“Our merchandise team does a fantastic job of leading our work in this area and working with colleagues across the rest of the business to embed our commitments to environmental sustainability into their processes,” says Rishi Jain, director of impact at Liverpool FC (pictured). “As a result, the merchandising functions are now embracing the principles of reuse, recycle and repurpose where possible across the business.”
Highlighted in its latest report, LFC chalks the elimination of non-sustainable packaging and materials across 35% of its branded retail products and the stark increase in waste recycling numbers from 25% to a whopping 90% among its biggest wins of the season.
But the work doesn’t stop there.
“We know that as a football club with a brand that’s recognisable in pretty much every household around the world, we have a major part to play in tackling climate change,” continues Rishi. “But it’s not something we can do alone. There’s a willingness to collaborate and share best practice, talk about our collective successes and how we face our biggest challenges when it comes to sustainability that you rarely get anywhere else. And that’s special.”
Products of Change Conference takes place on 6 November at the Royal Geographical Society, London. Tickets – both in-person and digital – can be purchased by clicking here.
For further information on how you can become a part of the sustainability in sports licensing action, contact Helena Mansell-Stopher.
To read more about the sports licensing category, check out the autumn 2024 edition of Licensing Sports Book. To read the full publication, click on this link.
