When I started working in sport and sustainability over 20 years ago, I would occasionally stumble across another person who shared my passion for the topic, and even less often somebody who understood the role of sport in driving sustainability.
We’ve come a long way since then, and although we are still only scratching the surface of what is possible, we are now starting to leverage the unmatched platform of major sporting events as an opportunity for change. I began in sailing with the national federation as its first Environmental Manager. At that time, golf was the only other sport active in this area, both with easy alignments to the outdoors being their “course”. I remember providing information on the work we were doing to the London 2012 bid team and ultimately when we came to deliver the Olympics in 2012, this was a core part of the programme.
At Think Beyond, we’ve seen first-hand how major sporting events can become powerful catalysts for environmental change when sustainability is embedded at the heart of their delivery. From transforming operational practices to inspiring millions of fans, these events are no longer just about sport—they are about creating scalable, positive impacts for our planet.
Major sporting events like the Olympics, World Cups and World Championships across all sports have the potential to drive tangible sustainable change. This can be through influencing the behaviour of event staff, contractors and suppliers to the event, commercial and non-commercial partners as well as attendees and athletes.
Major sporting events can become powerful catalysts for environmental change when sustainability is embedded at the heart of their delivery
More recently we have seen a positive shift in appetite for delivering long-term change, in the depth of delivery and the desire to create an authentic platform for scalable change and a call to action. In the past, events delivered one-off projects, or participating teams delivered some local community engagement. We are now seeing federations, leagues, mega-events and world championships looking for meaningful business change, which in turn can influence behavioural change.
When a major event can create such a platform, the communications and activations can target positive engagement opportunities, for example; mental health awareness, inclusivity, and environmental impact through travel and food choices, the event sets up the conditions for individuals to become conscious of their own societal impact and gives them actions they can take.
At Think Beyond, our work is focussed on helping sports organisations create the authentic platform to enable this scalable, societal impact. We have supported World Athletics realise its opportunity as an International Federation, through its World Championships and World Athletics Series (WAS) events, as well as the events they sanction including mass participation road race events. Together we have created the Athletics for a Better World Standard to provide a sustainability (social and environmental) framework for delivery of these events. This framework is driving actions across diversity, inclusion, health and well-being, as well as reducing carbon emissions, food sourcing, air quality and local environmental improvements.
We can talk for hours about the theoretical logic that underpins the role of sport in driving change, but this comes to life through real-world examples of major sports properties and organisations walking the walk when it comes to sustainability.
An event sets up the conditions for individuals to become conscious of their own societal impact and gives them actions they can take.
Liverpool Football Club leads the way in football, reaching its 8 million fans and inspiring change through “The Red Way”, which underpins how the club operates. The club has been awarded the status of the most sustainable football club in the world and aspires to have the most positive impact on the planet. The focus is on behavioural standards through its Red Together programme, and community programmes through the Foundation. The club has a comprehensive climate action plan, grounded in a wide ranging reduce-first approach. Football’s Premier League has set out its Environmental Commitment for all participating clubs to set a minimum standard for clubs taking part in the league with the aspiration that this leads to the clubs encouraging their fans to take positive action.
Scaling influencing fans through behaviour change is one of the reasons we work with sports organisations, working increasingly with commercial and communications teams to create meaningful activations.
11th Hour Racing, has changed the face of sponsorship in sailing, funding America’s Cup campaigns and winning the Ocean Race. The team deeply engaged and motivated to deliver on sustainability, which started when Ben Ainslie Racing became the first sport team to achieve the international sustainability standard ISO20121. Among many others, the STEM programme reached thousands of young people visiting the Tech Deck schools centre within the team base. Ultimately, our work brought us to work with World Sailing to develop its Agenda 2030, again using their International Federation platform to drive change from grassroots to elite.
Engaging with athletes and teams to deliver the message is powerful. With SailGP, we conceptualised and developed the Impact League to engage the teams on a competitive platform where they were rewarded for “using their voice”. Each SailGP team carries the flag of their Race for the Future partner, taking prime commercial sponsorship space on their sails directly reaching the fans with the team’s programmes and the athlete voice. We are focused on supporting athletes to use their voice across a range of different areas of social and environmental impact.
Think Beyond is committed to maximise the opportunity sport presents driving positive societal change. Our work is grounded in the belief that an effective call to action must be based on authenticity and transparency.
Think Beyond is a social impact and sustainability consultancy, working in and through sport and entertainment. We support brands, teams, leagues, athletes and sports organisations to have a real impact on the world and their business. To find out more, visit www.thinkbeyond.consulting, or contact me on LinkedIn here.
Susie is one of the world’s leading proponents of sustainability in sport, and was recently recognised as the Sport Positive European Leader of the Year 2024. She has been involved in establishing and delivering sustainability transformation across the world of sport, pioneering industry-leading sport sustainability strategies and delivery programmes and has developed carbon emission inventories and carbon reduction plans for sporting clubs, NGBs, federations, and leagues. Whilst at Think Beyond she has developed and delivered sustainability programmes for SailGP, Liverpool Football Club, World Athletics, European Athletics, World Lacrosse, and St Andrews Links Trust amongst others. Susie led the UK Sport research project into environmental support for NGBs and the roll out of the pilot programme and British Cycling’s sustainability support and brings hands-on experience to any sustainability project. Susie also co-chaired the UN Sport for Climate Action working group on Measure, Reduce, Offset helping signatories (over 300) to shape their understanding of how to define scope, measure carbon emissions, and develop reduction plans.