Sidelining Carbon is helping professional sports teams and their fans get clarity around how to take definitive climate action, connecting them to
resources to drive it forward, and growing the conversation in the sports world.
Sidelining Carbon, an initiative created by
a collaborative of ‘green sports’ advocates, aims to showcase professional
sports teams that are taking steps to reduce and offset their carbon emissions.
By the end of 2021, the initiative aims to have 50 professional sports teams
committed to sharing their carbon emissions work, whether through fan
engagement, reduction strategies, or investment in offsets. With already two
major league teams on board, the initiative is growing quickly with the goal of
normalizing the word ‘carbon’ within the front offices of sports teams.
The initiative was originally created by The Conservation
Coalition (TCC) through inspiration from a collaboration
between The Nature
Conservancy
and Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Brent Suter. TCC, a youth movement to
reform the culture of environmentalism, manages Sidelining Carbon as one of
their campaigns to ‘build a national base to challenge the status quo through
market-driven solutions.’ Recently, TCC brought on the change agency
Recipric as its Sports Industry Partner, to grow the
movement through Recipric’s network of sports teams that work at the
intersection of professional sports and sustainability. Together, TCC and
Recipric plan to leverage the precedent set by Suter, as a climate-active
athlete,
to work with other athlete-led environmental organizations such as Players for
the Planet and
EcoAthletes; and collaborate with other climate
advocates to evolve the topic of carbon in sports — especially within the front
offices of sports teams.
Sidelining Carbon engages professional sports teams in several ways:
-
Teams that already make investments in their choice of carbon-offset
projects
— including on-site renewable energy production — can simply leverage the
initiative to join the community of professional teams talking about carbon
and to showcase their efforts on the website. While the efforts vary, clubs
have been able to estimate their emissions related to Scope 1,
2
and sometimes Scope
3
— and work with an offset partner to invest in an offset solution. Many
teams have not shared this commitment publicly; but by joining Sidelining
Carbon, they can share their work through a nonprofit that will clarify
confusing messaging about sustainability. Sidelining Carbon encourages teams
to share their commitments publicly as well, and will even provide turnkey
social media content for teams to help them talk about the importance of
measuring and reducing carbon emissions.
-
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Professional sports teams that do not currently invest in carbon projects
may sign up for Sidelining Carbon by completing a simple online form on the
website. By doing so, they will also select an offset project that is
relevant to them, receive support in quantifying their season’s emissions,
and be connected with their chosen offset partner. After doing so, their
team logo will appear on the initiative’s
website and they will receive turnkey
social media content to share their efforts and engage with their fans.
-
Sports fans can also get involved by nominating their team to join the
initiative. Sidelining Carbon aims to leverage the voices of the teams’ best
advocates by equipping fans with information on how their favorite teams can
join the movement. The initiative is also launching an interactive online
tool for fans to nominate their team and provides social media language for
fans to publicly share their call to action. By bringing tangible actions to
the fans, the initiative hopes to highlight the importance of talking about
carbon emissions in professional sports.
Sidelining Carbon is just getting started. In addition to bringing on 50
professional sports teams in 2021, we are also aiming to further integrate
carbon emissions-related climate actions into professional sports. Similar to
most corporations, most professional sports organizations are currently focused
on measuring, minimizing and offsetting Scope 1 & 2 emissions. In future years,
Recipric & TCC hope to support the organizations that have joined the initiative
to dig deeper into the carbon-accounting process, recognizing embodied
carbon
within the supply chain and other carbon-intensive factors of operating a
professional sports team. In the future, this could include integrating sports
brands and team sponsors with the goal of continuing to elevate the critical
importance of integrating carbon-related solutions into business.
Published Apr 9, 2021 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST
Kristen Fulmer is founder of Recipric — a front office sustainability agency based in NYC.