UK Sport launches Environmental Sustainability Strategy to protect ‘Team of Tomorrow’ | General News
A key element of the strategy is UK Sport supporting partners, national governing bodies and the elite sport community to reduce their emissions and make a net positive impact on the environment. Bespoke UK sport support is provided to help sports calculate their carbon footprint and environmental impact, develop environmental sustainability plans and develop training, learning and development opportunities.
UK Sport is already providing national governing bodies with environmental sustainability expertise and technical guidance to implement systemic change in their operations through a pilot project. This includes supporting British Triathlon, UK Athletics, British Swimming and England Hockey together with the English Institute of Sport to accelerate their journey towards environmental sustainability, measure their carbon footprint and other environmental impacts and develop a sustainability action plan.
British sporting director Sally Munday said:
“Climate change affects us all. We have seen courses and fields flooded and extreme heat affecting athletes, their training and their competitions. A failure to act now not only endangers the long-term relevance and attractiveness of competitive sport, but also the future of competitive sport itself. Without urgent action, our Team of Tomorrow is in jeopardy.
“UK Sport is committed to reducing the impact of our own activities and operations, achieving the goal of net zero by 2030 and driving action and progress on sustainability across high-performance sport.
“Our aim is for British Olympic and Paralympic sport, together with the major sporting events we host in the UK, to have a net positive impact on the environment by 2040.
“Sport has the power to unite people across borders and inspire positive change. Not only must we take meaningful sustainability action ourselves, but we must use the voice, influence and platform of high-performance sport to advocate for environmental sustainability action and inspire others to take action and make a difference.”
Jamie Skiggs, Director of Finance & Business Operations at the English Institute of Sport said:
“We are all increasingly aware of the importance of environmental sustainability and EIS is delighted to partner with UK Sport and several national governing bodies to consider concrete action in this area. We are still in the early stages of our learning and journey, but we look forward to developing our own action plan for it so that we can play our role as a key organization in the UK high-performing community.”