Posts Tagged ‘sport’
On Thursday, May 6, Professor Sackett, the Chief Scientist for Australia, presented at the Sir Mark Oliphant CleanTech conference dinner, hosted at the MCG, on the topic of Green Sport.
In referring to some of the great moments in sport she said “with every one of these moments in our sporting history has come emissions of carbon, in the form of CO2 and soot, the same substances that are directly or indirectly risking tennis players fainting at the Australian open as they fight through our hottest summers yet, Olympic athletes to wheeze as they run through poor air quality in Beijing, and contributing to drought in areas where athletes need fields to train.”
Professor Sackett went on to say that “sport is, without a doubt, a crucial part of the Australian cultural fabric” and at Greensense we believe it is an industry that through it’s leadership has the ability to educate and influence a nation to more sustainable living. We are already engaged with the WA Football Commission, Triathlon WA, Perth 2011 and the Drug Aware Pro, some of WA’s leading sporting groups, to help them become leaders in sustainable events and operations. We are working with them on everything from sustainable event management, education and awareness, energy efficient buildings and organising green team initiatives.
The key things Professor Sackett suggested a sporting event must take into account are:
– the greenhouse costs of building the stadium or venue,
– the transportation of tens of thousands of spectators,
– stadium lighting
– and even the cost of old Bob sitting at home watching the game on his voracious plasma TV.
A key suggestion related to transportation as one of the largest contributors to carbon emissions, where encouraging and subsidising public transport would assist in reducing the number of cars on the road and CO2 in the air. Another key area is development in sustainable architecture. According to research conducted by CSIRO, energy use in buildings accounts for 26 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.
We’re already working with some of Western Australian’s top sporting events to help make sport more sustainable, including the Perth 2011 Sailing Regatta, Drug Aware Pro, TriWA and the Bussleton Half-Ironman, and, the Western Australian Football Commission.
We’re passionate about Sustainable Sport. We’d love to help you make your sport or sporting event more sustainable. You can read more about our sustainable event management services or contact us for more information.
The AFL (Australian Football League), with the help of their partner Origin Energy, aim to be the first sporting league in the world to completely offset the carbon emissions generated by their activities. This will see a reduction of about 120,000 tonnes of emissions in 2009, through a combination of offsetting and internal abatement through energy efficiency.
For more information go to the AFL website.
Individual clubs, including Hawthorn , Carlton and St Kilda have their own published green initiatives and are setting an example for the remaining AFL clubs to follow.
At Greensense we believe it would be great to see not only other AFL clubs following in their footsteps, but some of the other large sporting leagues in the country taking a pro-active approach to tackling climate change. Education is a vital first step in encouraging people to make the small changes in their life necessary to reduce their carbon footprint. With their large memberships and high profile, sporting clubs and organisations are perfectly placed to support this education process by taking a lead and setting that al-important example.
Looking overseas there is also still a lot of work to be done by the sporting leagues and clubs. This industry typically has a lot of travel and should be conscious of it’s environmental impact. In a quick scan of websites of the Football Association UK, English Premier League (and 5 of its 20 clubs), National Football League US (and 8 of its 32 clubs), National Basketball Association US (and 8 of its 30 clubs), the Olympics and the US Golf Association it appears none are making any progress in this space.
There is a strong sense of community involvement, particularly in the US, in areas of youth, domestic violence, discrimination, food bank, blood bank, homelessness etc. The New York Jets, whose colours are green, have and ‘Lean and Green’ program but it is all about childhood obesity and food programs with no mention of environmental aspects.
