Building a more sustainable strategy for sport

Today marks 50 years of Earth Day.

Until the start of this year, one of the biggest challenges facing the sports and entertainment industry was how to run sustainable events that do not have a negative impact on the planet.

With the recent Covid-19 pandemic dominating worldwide headlines and business priorities, it would be easy to push sustainability to the back of our minds while we focus on the here and now.

But if we do not keep sustainability high up on the agenda, soon the future will be the present. This is why I strongly believe that our existing climate commitments cannot waiver in the face of this new challenge.

Running a sustainable sporting tournament

Events are temporary, pop up entities which have a beginning, a middle and an end, and have therefore traditionally been inefficient in their very nature. With the increase in public awareness of climate change, and a collective sense of responsibility growing amongst businesses and event organisers, now is the time for us to put our hands up and commit to leaving a positive, responsible impact with our tournament.

It is very clear that younger people are making more ethical based decisions, using their purchasing power to put pressure on suppliers, manufacturers, and brands to clean up their act. It is only a matter of time before the increasingly younger consumers – along with older, climate-conscious sports fans - start to question the sustainability of the events they love to attend.

In order to future-proof the validity of our tournament, and to set further RLWC tournaments and indeed other events up for success, it is imperative to acknowledge the intrinsic link between revenue capability and sustainable, ethical decision-making.

Approaching this challenge

It is not straightforward to run large-scale events in a sustainable way. There are, unfortunately, challenges and obstacles we need to overcome with a test and learn approach. A lot of what we do is about road testing the art of the possible as we attempt to break new ground and pave a more sustainable way for generations to come.

However, I believe success will come from a collective industry effort, learning from others, and practically working towards making a difference together.

Etienne Thobois, the Chief Executive of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organising Committee, set out his ambition to make Paris 2024 “a model of inclusion, sustainable development and social innovation.”

Elsewhere, we can see many sports are now using their power as brands and influencers to raise awareness with supporters and fans.

For example, in football, Manchester United has been taking a strong stance in tackling environmental and social issues at regional, national, and international level, using its brand to leverage support and create awareness of environmental issues with supporters and fans.

RLWC2021 sustainability strategy

Having recognised the impact of sport on our planet, we have pledged a commitment to the UN Sports for Climate Action Framework, which aims to minimise sport’s impact on the environment and, specifically, greenhouse gas emissions.

To help guide us in the right direction, we engaged with a specialist agency Earth to Ocean to help us create an achievable business framework.

Our aim is to focus on key areas where we can make a demonstrable difference as part of a broader sustainability charter, and I look forward to sharing progress updates with you over the coming months.

Some of our priorities include:

1.     Suppliers and contractors

Unfortunately, we are limited as to some of the elements we can control, for example the catering at host venues. However, where possible, we intend to work with local suppliers who support our ambitions and to encourage the use of low carbon/renewable alternatives.

We will also be working hard to minimise overall waste and maximise reuse and recycling, for example making a commitment to only using recyclable materials in look and feel branding at host venues.

2.     Corporate partnerships

A key part of our sustainability strategy is working with commercial partners who share our values and will support our commitments in this area. This is why we have an appetite to learn from their experience and expertise.

To us, our corporate partners are not just about adding investment into the tournament. By combining our visibility, profile, and efforts, we are more likely to succeed.

3.     Raising awareness

We have a powerful opportunity to use our platforms to raise awareness and tackle the big issues impacting our world, and we intend to be a campaigning organisation in terms of visibility and profile.

This will include using our digital channels and wider media plan to share sustainability facts, initiatives, and achievements. We will also communicate best practice behaviours to event attendees and their communities, as part of a sustainability communications plan which stretches across all host cities and venues. We also aim to drive a cultural shift for the sport in spectator travel with a proactive approach to public transport and travel planning.

4.     Reduce, reuse and recycle

To further help reduce our carbon footprint, we are pursuing the objective of being a digital first tournament. Amongst many customer facing initiatives we will be signposting people to our digital channels and changing simple behaviours such as reducing printing and where physical is required using recyclable materials.

5.     Legacy

Whilst environmental considerations of course play a huge part of any sustainability strategy, we also need to consider the economic and social impact of all the RLWC2021 activities.

We are already making great strides towards our goal of leaving a lasting positive social and economic impact through our InspirationALL legacy programme.

This includes working with hard-to-reach groups in some of the most deprived areas of England, in order to connect communities and improve their economic and social wellbeing.

Some of these initiatives include developing an exciting cultural programme featuring dance, choir and storytelling, being the first major sports event to deliver a mental fitness charter, and training grass roots coaches to leave a sustainable tournament legacy.

Additionally, our CreatedBy capital funding has thus far seen over ￡4m invested into new community Rugby League facilities with all large-scale developments having energy efficient systems and small grants funding several new eco boilers.

Working towards the future

There is a lot to do over the coming months, and as the tournament is a ‘fixed-term’ event, a big part of what we do needs to include the creation of new benchmarks and a toolkit to assist future RLWC tournaments in continuing the progress we make in the build up to 2021.

We also want to do as much as we can to share best practices, enabling the wider, international sporting community to learn from our activities and to filter down through the Rugby Football League, through national federations, clubs, and grassroots programmes.

We want to be transparent with our results, sharing knowledge gained and measuring success to demonstrate how a sustainability communications plan can positively impact volume, value, and reach.

It is also important to consider all types of sustainability - economic, social as well as environmental and whilst undoubtedly there is huge focus on the latter the impact of the others are also vitally important and that is why social impact is intrinsic to our journey.

Ultimately, it is about carving a path for the global sports community and future generations to help combat climate change in an authentic and realistic way. Our efforts and impact will be marginal in the wider context, but it would be a missed opportunity if we did not play our part.