Euronews Tonight: Sport Positive Summit Coverage

Claire Poole joins Euronews tonight to speak about Sport Positive Summit 2020 and the role of sport in tackling climate change.

BBC Sport: BBC Sport joins United Nations climate change framework on eve of summit

By David Lockwood, BBC Sport

BBC Sport has joined United Nation’s Sports for Climate Action Framework on the eve of a two-day Sport Positive summit to address climate change.

The two-day online summit aims to discuss how sport can reduce its environmental impact and educate fans about the climate emergency.

“Like the rest of the industry, we have a duty to ensure we are doing everything we can to keep our environmental impacts to a minimum,” Barbara Slater , director of BBC Sport said.

“Signing up to the UNFCC demonstrates the importance we attach to strengthening the great work we have already done in this area.”

BBC Sport becomes the 157th organisation and only the second broadcaster to sign up to the framework – which has five commitments:

Promote greater environmental responsibility
Reduce their climate impact
Educate for climate action
Promote sustainable and responsible consumption;
Advocate for climate action through communication.
Many other signatories are taking part in this week’s summit. Attendees include the International Olympic Committee (IOC), NBA, Uefa, Premier League clubs and the NFL.

Sport Positive Summit founder Claire Poole said: “No one organisation in sport or elsewhere has nailed sustainability or climate change, we’re all on a journey and we all still have a lot to learn”.

“Covid-19 and the issues around it have brought into relief the greater need for sustainability, for resilience, for dealing with these efforts more systemically.”

Susan Groh who is Associate Director of NFL Green said “The climate crisis is huge, It’s going to take all of us to solve it. And I think if we can share best practices and work together, that’s what it’s going to take.

“Sports is a powerful entity, more people pay attention to sport than to climate or science, so if we can use the power of sports to get that message out about the environment that can have a huge impact and we can all come together to work together on that I think that’s significant.”

Niclas Svenningsen, manager for Global Climate Action at the UN welcomed BBC Sport, saying: “Prominent sports broadcasting companies, such as BBC Sport, have a tremendous reach and impact in terms of informing viewers and influencing sports actors.

“We look forward to their contribution as they walk the talk on climate and use their broadcast power to influence awareness, attitudes and knowledge of climate change”

Independent: Why 2020 could be the start of a radical reboot across all sport

Claire Poole and Ed King believe football – and sport in general – can re-emerge in a way that delivers not just for the clubs, players and fans, but for the planet we all call home.

First the Bundesliga, now the Premier League. Football is coming home – quite literally – as that’s the only place you’ll be able to watch it for now.

With the sport facing financial armageddon the focus of the FA and Premier League has to be player safety, ensuring that – subject to government approval – games can be played.

Yet, as we often learn more from defeat than victory, so this blow can serve as a wake-up call to a sector that often circumnavigates global problems.

Just 12% of Brits polled by Savanta-Comres strongly approve of how Premier League football clubs have handled this crisis, compared to 29% for the UK government and 72% for the NHS.

If COVID-19 has taught us anything it’s that no-one and no sector is immune to its global impacts, rich or poor, mighty or small.

Rouleur: Going Green – Bike racing sends out the wrong message when it comes to environmental impact

How the sport is waking up to a more sustainable world.

Published in Rouleur

words by
IAN PARKER

illustration by
TOM JAY

View Article (PDF)

Sport Positive Summit Announces Role in UK’s Year of Climate Action

February 17th, 2020 – London: One month ahead of the largest gathering to date of global sports organisations affecting positive environmental change, Sport Positive Summit announces it’s partnership with UK Government’s Year of Climate Action in the run up to UN Climate Change Conference (COP26).

The UK Year of Climate Action 2020 provides an opportunity, during a critical year for the future of our planet, to make changes to stop the activities which are polluting our land, water and skies; impacting people’s lives, and making parts of our planet uninhabitable.

Green Sports Blog: Previewing the Sport Positive Summit with Claire Poole

The first Sport Positive Summit, which takes place March 17-18 at Wembley Stadium in London, promises to be unique among Green-Sports conferences with its laser-like focus on climate change.

GSB spoke with Claire Poole, the event’s organizer and guiding spirit, about what attendees can expect to experience.

GreenSportsBlog: Where did the germ for the idea that became Sport Positive Summit come from?

Claire Poole: Well Lew, as you know I was a consultant to the U.N. on the effort that would become the Sports for Climate Action framework back in October 2017. Then, when we saw the success of the framework when it launched in December 2018, I thought that, for sport and climate to really move forward, we needed to catalyze the global interest and momentum. Having worked in events for nearly 15 years, a Summit sounded like something I could make happen to support the movement. So that’s where it started and, here we are!

GreenSportsBlog: It sounds so easy when you say it but pulling off a Summit that will draw people from the UK, Europe and far beyond is a heavy lift. So, kudos! How will the Sport Positive Summit differentiate itself versus Green Sports Alliance Summits and other Green-Sports events?

Claire: We’re a global Summit, we’re aligned with UNFCCC Sport for Climate Action Framework and want the momentum we are working to build to support the other green sports events out there. As you can see when you visit our website, all of the global green, sustainable sports alliances and associations are supporters of Sport Positive Summit, and their voices all are on the agenda.

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The Athletic: Football clubs’ 14-minute flights and a global warming problem nobody will tackle

By Jack Pitt-Brooke Jan 21, 2020

Liverpool have already played 36 games this season and if they keep winning in the FA Cup and Champions League — and you would not bet against them — the Istanbul final in May will be their 64th. Last season, Manchester City went out of Europe earlier than expected and still played 61.

Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola have both spoken about the schedule but they are shouting at the incoming tide.

Nobody has ever made money by putting on fewer football matches. The global game is growing, tournaments are expanding and are being held further and further afield. It raises the question of whether football is doing enough, or even doing anything, to measure, limit or offset its carbon footprint.

Because the climate crisis is already impacting football, whether football wants to know or not.

Tadcaster Albion know about the cost of climate change: roughly £200,000. They play in the Northern Premier League Division One North West but, more…

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Euractiv: Four clubs would lead the Premier if climate friendly policies were the goal

A study conducted in England has listed its football teams according to their environmental performance and four Premier League clubs – Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham – are leading the table.

The study was conducted by Andrew Welfle from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester, in collaboration with BBC Sports, and commissioned by the UN-backed Sports Positive Summit, has concluded.

For the study, clubs were asked to provide information regarding their use of clean energy, energy and water efficiency performance, sustainable transport initiatives, single-use plastic reduction, waste management attainment, low carbon food options availability and communication plans.

The clubs were awarded points depending on whether they had implemented relevant initiatives to improve their performance in their stadiums, offices and/or grounds on all these eight areas. Arsenal FC, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspurs were awarded the full score.

Arsenal switched to renewable electricity in 2017, paper straws and wooden stirrers have replaced the plastic ones, 90% is the waste recycling rate on match day, has a system to reuse water for irrigation and counts on several vegan options in their menu.

Manchester City has cycle parking spaces and electric charging points across the stadium; the club achieved zero waste sent to landfill via recycling, introduced a reusable beer cup scheme that made it possible to remove 29k single-use plastic cups each matchday and managed to reduce water consumption by 83% thanks to the use of rainwater.

Manchester United has the policy to purchase certified green electricity for all facilities, the club has promoted a ‘Cycle to Work scheme’ for staff to reduce and spread the cost of purchasing a bike and accessories and whatever is not recycled on-site is used to produce energy while waste food is composted.

10% of the energy of Tottenham’s training facility is produced on-site through renewable sources, it also counts on a sedum ‘green roof’ to enable the capture and re-harvesting of rainwater. Furthermore, the club has committed to raising awareness and has dedicated part of the website to highlight its own and others’ activities.

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Sport Positive Summit Announces Collaboration with International Olympic Committee

25 November 2019, London – The global meeting place for sports organisations effecting positive environmental impacts, Sport Positive Summit 2020 in collaboration with UNFCCC
Global Climate Action, today announces its collaboration with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

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Sport Positive Summit Releases Sustainability Credentials of English Premier League Clubs

13 November 2019, London – For the first time the environmental sustainability initiatives of all 20 top flight English teams, provided by and/or verified by the clubs themselves, have been collated into a league table.

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