Euractiv: Sport Positive Summit founder works to ‘unleash potential of sport for climate action’

By Philipp Grüll | EURACTIV.de

To achieve the UN climate targets, it is not enough for companies or associations to operate more sustainably. What is needed is a rethink among the general population. Claire Poole is convinced that sports can play an important role, which is why she organises the annual Sports Positive Summit. In this interview with EURACTIV Germany, she explains her vision.

Claire Poole is the founder and CEO of Sport Positive Summit, an event agency for a conference on sport and sustainability. She is pursuing other projects in this area under the Sport Positive brand.

Ms Poole, what exactly is the Sport Positive Summit?

An annual event where we bring together people from around the world who want to make sport more sustainable. We collaborate with UN Climate Action and the International Olympic Committee on this Summit, but we also run other projects and actions under the Sport Positive brand.

What is the goal of your organisation?

Our overarching goal is to unleash the potential of sport for climate action. When we started our work, there was already work happening globally, but in a more sporadic and localised way: sports organisations might offer regionally sourced catering, or encourage greater use of public transportation, and so on, but learnings weren’t necessarily exchanged globally. So the goal of knowledge transfer is high on our agenda, as well as encouraging sports fans towards positive environmental behaviours.