The Power of Sports in Environmental Sustainability
Sustainability has been a hot topic for this past decade due to the climate crisis, and people in all areas are beginning to make more and more efforts for environmental protection. In addition to the scientific field of environmental studies, some most frequently discussed fields are sustainable fashion and sustainable living products, but “sustainable sports” has not been widely noticed like others even though it can play an important role.
Sport has always had an amazing ability that bring people together from all over the world. The internationalization of sport has united people with diverse backgrounds, so it is not hard to imagine that the world of sports can be a powerful role in any kind of movement. Interaction between the sports industry and other industries such as construction, energy, manufacturing, medicine, and pharmaceutical, education, etc. has a big influence on the earth's environment. Some impacts can be energy and water use in sports facilities, wastes from sports events, transportation use, greenhouse gas emissions, and water contamination from the manufacturing of sportswear and equipment; those impacts can come from any sort of application for sports purposes. Therefore, sport is a turning point that leads the environmental sustainability by working with different industries.
During the past few years, there was an increasing number of people in the sports field that started focusing on environmental sustainability, especially sports which have a direct connection with the natural environment like mountain cycling, surfing, boating, golf, diving, and any other outdoor sports. One data shows that 150 million metric tons of existing plastics and 8 million metric tons of plastics entering the ocean each year are directly affecting athletes who rely on the ocean for their sports. Rising temperature is another biggest factor of sports performance today. Compared with the 1990s, the average player experiences 20% more extremely hot days and this number will increase to 42% to 70% by 2050 according to the Global Historical Climatology Network and Berkeley Earth Daily Surface Temperature. Runner Joan Benoit Samuelson said that she felt like she was an environmental barometer for climate change when she was out running. Women’s tennis player Naomi Osaka said: “Tennis is a global sport and we’re feeling how hot it is around the world when we’re training and competing”. Hot weather also consumes more energy and pushes athletes who wear more equipment to work harder, like American football players, lacrosse players, and baseball players. Studies have proved that players perform a lot better when the temperature is cooler. One example is Nike’s two-hour marathon research that three elite runners had their fastest race times in temperature 50°F/ 10°C. All these climate impacts have increased the environmental protection awareness of athletes in different sports and propelled the development of the sport on the path of environmental sustainability.
Many sports companies, non-profit organizations, institutions, and leagues are now putting efforts to protect the earth's environment. The International Olympic Committee has developed its sustainability strategy aimed at all directions as an organization, owner of the Olympic Games, and leader of the Olympic Movement. IOC’s former headquarter recycled 12,000 tons of concrete in the foundation of Olympic House, and it reduced 25% of associated return flights for meetings. IOC makes sure that all their sports events are developing sustainability strategies focused on natural sites and infrastructure, sourcing and resource management, mobility, workforce, and climate. 2012 London Olympic Games was considered the first Olympic Games to measure the carbon footprint and the first Games to commit to a “zero waste” landfill target. Tennis Grand Slam Wimbledon Championships has also set their 2030 environmental impact goal which targets net-zero, resource-efficiency, biodiversity, and inspiring actions. The Green Sports Alliance is an environmentally-focused trade organization that partnered with teams, leagues, corporations, athletes, fans, etc. to promote sustainable development in sports. This year, GSA’s annual summit was held remotely due to the COVID-19 situation, but it still created a fabulous online platform allowing speakers and participants to have great discussions of sustainability achievements in different aspects and future perspectives in the sporting world. FIFA, Nike, the International Olympic Committee, National Hockey League, UN Climate Change, and so many others joined this summit and showed their values as leaders in this transformation in the world of sports.
Many similar organizations like Green Sports Alliance are continuously emerging during the past few years meaning sports sustainability started getting more and more attention from people. These organizations, though small, are usually connected with a lot of influential roles in various fields and promote them to get involved in the development of sports sustainability. For example, the participation of famous athletes in environmental protection can motivate their fan groups to take actions which can also affect the behavior of people around these fans. All these activists, from an athlete or a fan to a business or an organization, have reflected how powerful sports can be in a sustainable journey.
Even though there is no broad cognition of sports sustainability yet, many actions have been taken by people in this field to help the earth become greener. Sport has the ability to gather people to contribute to this environmental movement just like it gathers people to play games and fight for the same goal – win! “Sustainable Sports” is now gradually growing larger and stronger, and we should utilize this key to open the gate of a new era.