2024

Dr Catherine Flitcroft is Head of Access and Environment at the British Mountaineering Council (BMC). She is responsible for managing the BMC’s relationship with Government and other countryside and recreational organisations. She also leads the BMC on policy and legislation issues affecting the cliff and mountain environment and is responsible for transformative climate action across the organisation including GB Climbing.

Over the past few years, she has been responsible for collating the organisations GHG emissions data and ensuring the organisations Climate and Sustainability Action Plan is adhered to (reporting to the UN Sport for Climate Action Framework and more recently, UN Sport for Nature).

To engage with the wider membership and athletes, she has also developed an overarching Sustainable Steps Campaign which contains a host of useful information and advice / checklists as well as a BMC Lift Share site. These all sit alongside a much larger Climate Project which is a collection of nature-based solutions (based in the UK) which are helping to protect and restore nature and address the climate and biodiversity crisis. By tapping into our membership, the BMC has raised a significant amount of money to help transform the moorland landscape of the Peak District and North Pennines and bring the underlying blanket peat into good condition – helping to save about 62,000 tonnes of avoided carbon loss per year. Cath is particularly passionate about bogs as her PhD focussed on the reasons for their inception.

She was once a champion athlete and has, by her own admission, spent far too much time in the wilderness of Scotland.

Melvin Benn is the Managing Director of Festival Republic, the leading UK event promoter behind Latitude, Reading & Leeds Festivals, Wireless and Wilderness. In 2017, Benn was instrumental in producing the One Love Manchester benefit concert which was broadcast live in over 50 countries and raised over £2 million for the British Red Cross We Love Manchester Emergency Fund.

With vast experience of staging the best in entertainment events, Benn is a Director of Glastonbury Festival and was a Chairman of the Board of Directors of Wembley Stadium for five years from 2011. Benn sits as a representative on the Concert Promoters Association (CPA), was influential in writing the Guide to Health and Safety at Outdoor Events (‘the Pop Code’) and makes regular presentations to the Emergency Planning College, the police and other bodies.

Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh, MBE, is an environmental psychologist, specialising in perceptions and behaviour in relation to climate change, energy and transport, based in the Department of Psychology, University of Bath. She is Director of the ESRC-funded UK Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST). She regularly advises governmental and other organisations on low-carbon behaviour change and climate change communication, was one of the expert leads for Climate Assembly UK, and Lead Author for IPCC’s Working Group II Sixth Assessment Report. Her research projects have included studies of meat consumption, energy efficiency behaviours, waste reduction and carrier bag reuse, perceptions of smart technologies and electric vehicles, low-carbon lifestyles, and responses to climate change.

Lucy Amis is the Senior Advisor for Knowledge & Capacity, at the Centre for Sport and Human Rights (CSHR) and is driving CSHR’s new Sport, Human Rights and Climate Action programme. She has advised Sport Bodies and Local Organising Committees on human rights, including Commonwealth Sport and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Glasgow 2014 and Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, and delivered human rights trainings for among others the FIFA men’s 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, and UEFA EURO 2024 in Germany.

Lucy has been at the forefront of the growing Sport and Human Rights movement since 2012 and as author of Striving for Excellence: Mega-Sporting Events and Human Rights was one of the originators of the work at the Institute for Human Rights and Business that led to the creation of CSHR. She has over two decades experience in research, thought leadership and in developing capacity-building tools in the fields of Business and Human Rights and Sport and Human Rights

Jamie’s thirteen-year rugby career saw him captain his country on the international stage. He has played fifty-nine international sevens tournaments for Scotland and is their second highest try scorer of all time. He won Twickenham Sevens back to back in 2016 and 2017, has been to two Commonwealth Games and two World Cups and is a European Games silver medalist with Team GB. He has also played for Cambridge University in the Varsity match.

Alongside playing, Jamie is a leading voice in the sport and sustainability space. He co-wrote a letter to World Rugby demanding environmental action signed by hundreds of professional players and gaining international media attention. He then worked with his own union to galvanise sustainability action and helped set up an ESG group which baselined current activity and workshopped sustainability aims from which to write a sustainability plan. Jamie’s research at Cambridge University has focussed upon sport’s role in influencing the uptake of sustainable technology amongst fans in the transition to a net zero economy, and he has used his platform to speak about sport’s responsibility in light of the climate crisis and the positive impact it can and should be having.

He has spoken at COP28, Global Sports Week, Sport Positive, COG-X, and at the Hong Kong sustainability summit. He has also spoken on podcasts such as High Impact Athletes, Emergency on Planet Sport, the ESG engagement podcast and has co-presented an hour-long BBC radio show on sustainability at the Rugby World Cup. Jamie has picked up awards as the International Olympic Committee Sustainability Ambassador award winner, Mastercard’s Future XV of those shaping the future of rugby, and is sustainability ambassador for Scottish Rugby and the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

Teresa Santos is the Sustainability Manager at FC Porto, where she has worked since 2007. She began her career at the club by implementing quality and environmental management systems, and since 2019, she has taken on the responsibility of leading the club’s sustainability efforts. With experience in match operations, she was responsible for the operational management of 2019 UEFA Nations League and the 2021 Champions League Final at Estádio do Dragão. Additionally, she manages and coordinates FC Porto’s participation in co-funded projects such as Life Tackle, ACCESS, FRE KICKS, and GEMINI. She represents FC Porto in the sustainability working groups of ECA and Liga Portugal and has participated in several UEFA working groups. She holds a degree in Chemical Engineering, a postgraduate qualification in Quality, Environment, and Safety Management Systems, and has recently completed training as a Chief Sustainability Officer.

Ben Barrett is a sustainability consultant supporting sports organisations, including the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), with Sports for Climate Action and Sports for Nature framework implementation. Before specialising in sports sustainability, Ben worked in broadcast television for 18 years, holding senior roles at ESPN and Sky in the UK, and supporting the wider industry through BAFTA’s ‘Albert’ initiative to create productions more sustainably.

Erica Edwards-O’Neal, Esq is a strategic diversity, equity, and social responsibility professional and lawyer. Bringing more than 25 years’ experience, she is a business executive that has provided guidance, counsel, and training across the country and internationally on topics including people and culture strategy, equity centered human resource practices, cultural competence, implicit bias, microaggressions, inclusive leadership, and EEO compliance. Additionally, she is the founder of EEO Consults and the Baked In Equity™ Framework. In late 2020, Erica joined New York Road Runners as the Senior Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, where she spearheads the organization’s diversity, equity, and social responsibility strategy across all business units and levels.

CEO and Co Founder of international not for profit A Greener Future and Co Founder of green energy specialists, Grid Faeries. Claire O’Neill is a pioneer in sustainability in events, establishing AGF following her research in 2005. Since then claire has worked with world leading events, venues and artists such as Massive Attack, Act 1.5, HM the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant, Glastonbury Festival, The O2, Wembley, BST Hyde Park, UEFA Champions League, Forest Green Rovers FC, ASM Global, AEG, HM the Queens Funeral, Bring Me The Horizon and The 1975. Claire organises Green Events & Innovations Conference (GEI) and advises industry bodies throughout Europe. Trail blazing best practice including the world’s first green festival and event standards, the Green Artist rider with Wasserman Agency, Greener Touring and Production, and Greener Arena Certification. Claire is on the Board of charities In Place of War and Naam Festival, Kenya. Additionally, Claire is an aerialist performing globally from the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony as Mary Poppins, to Arcadia Spectacular’s iconic Spider shows worldwide.

Tom Harris is the sustainability manager at Brighton & Hove Albion and is responsible for developing the club’s environmental sustainability strategy and leading on their carbon reduction plans to deliver on the commitment to become one of the most sustainable club’s in professional football and drive positive change within the local community. With over a decade of experience in sustainability and environmental management, Tom has worked with organisations in the public and private sectors to measure and reduce their environmental impact through strategy development, data analysis and project management.