Sporting Nature is a pioneering project that brings biodiversity and climate action to life through grassroots sport. Led by Ulster GAA in partnership with RSPB NI, NI Water, and funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, the project empowers GAA clubs across Northern Ireland to transform their grounds into thriving habitats for nature.

With over 30 clubs involved, the project delivered tailored Biodiversity Action Plans, created more than 5,000m² of wildflower meadows and planted 1,000+ native trees. By embedding nature-focused thinking into the heart of club culture, Sporting Nature is changing how communities interact with and value their local environment.

Sporting Nature has developed a replicable Toolkit and Handbook to share its learning, ensuring that its impact continues to grow. It proves that even the most familiar community spaces—like sports fields—can play a vital role in tackling the nature crisis and inspiring environmental change.

“Sin Azul No Hay Verde”: Real Betis’ Campaign for Ocean Protection

As part of its Forever Green sustainability platform, Real Betis launched “Sin Azul No Hay Verde” (“Without Blue, There Is No Green”), a groundbreaking campaign aimed at raising awareness about the invasion of Asian algae along the Andalusian coast—a direct consequence of climate change affecting marine biodiversity.

The campaign centered around the release of a special-edition football jersey made from invasive algae, making Real Betis the first football club to transform this marine waste into a powerful symbol of environmental action. The initiative combined digital outreach with impactful in-person events, including a press presentation in Tarifa (one of the most affected areas), the Forever Green Gala, and a themed matchday to amplify the message.

The campaign went beyond awareness by positioning ocean protection as part of football’s role in driving sustainability. It captured the attention of global media and inspired conversations among fans, institutions, and environmental organizations. By integrating sustainability into the realms of merchandising, brand identity, and community engagement, Real Betis demonstrated how sport can promote ecological responsibility.

“Sin Azul No Hay Verde” is more than a slogan—it’s a call to action

Munster Rugby’s 2024 Sustainability Report offers a fresh kind of climate communication- honest, human, and deeply rooted in the spirit of sport.

It’s an ode to the brave and faithful: supporters, players, staff, clubs, schools, and communities who make Munster what it is. Told in the club’s grounded voice, the story is action-led and science-informed, using rugby language to break down climate complexity into something relatable. The report mirrors the emotional arc of a rugby season- highs, lows, setbacks, and comebacks. Like sport and life, the journey is messy, imperfect, but real.

One notable section on climate adaptation shows how extreme weather affects operations, grassroots rugby, and communities. It reframes sport not just as vulnerable but as a source of resilience, solidarity, and leadership in tough times.

Created entirely in-house, the report has travelled organically- from pitch to classrooms to international forums. It doesn’t pretend to have all answers but chooses to show up, share what’s real, and invite others to do the same.

In a world of climate delay and green gloss, this story offers something rare: connection, courage, and hope- the belief that imperfect action isn’t just enough, it’s the way forward, and a last-minute turnaround remains possible.

Cricket for Climate is a player-led and collaborative movement founded by Australian Test Captain Pat Cummins, that has become a powerful model for climate action and advocacy through cricket.

With 8 million fans in Australia and 2.5 billion fans globally, cricket is ideally placed to help bring about change. We use the power of cricket to fast-track climate and energy resilience solutions across community sport clubs. Backed by players, we drive public support, local action and policy that saves clubs money, builds community resilience and protects the future of sport.

We’re walking the talk by taking real tangible action on exciting energy, sustainability, education and engagement projects. Our goals are to:

Build resilient clubs and communities – Transition cricket clubs and major venues to be carbon-negative, water-positive, zero-waste, and climate resilient.
Grow climate leadership – Develop a network of cricket messengers to normalise climate solutions.
Influence global systemic action – Influence the cricket ecosystem – governments, corporates, fans players, other sports, cricket bodies globally – towards climate action.

Being a leader is not about being the boss or giving speeches. It is about making things happen. David Stubbs has demonstrated this throughout his career – not just in sport – and he has been instrumental in driving large scale positive change for over 30 years.

When he started working in the sport sector in the late 1980s, very few people grasped the significance of this subject or the opportunities this could derive. He saw the opportunities and worked persistently to advocate this agenda.

His achievements at London 2012 are well documented. Less know is how since the Games he has continued the same mission and enabled fellow sustainability professionals to establish their programmes across a wide variety of sports events and organisations – IOC, World Rugby, Premier League and LTA to name a few.

Whether you work on carbon footprinting, management systems, sustainable sourcing, biodiversity or reporting, David set the path. To this day, from students to managing directors, people seek him out for the benefit of his experience and practical knowhow. Behind the scenes, but influential, nonetheless. He hasn’t sought the limelight; he’s just got on with driving sustainability into the way organisations work.

Kicking for Nature is transforming what sport — and especially martial arts — can do for our planet.

Created by the Jadir Taekwondo Association, a non-profit in Rio de Janeiro, this pioneering programme turns Taekwondo training into a journey of environmental responsibility. Students don’t earn new belts by just progressing in taekwondo, but by taking real action for the planet, from planting trees and cleaning up their communities to leading conversations about climate change.

Rooted in the martial arts philosophy of discipline, respect, and harmony, Kicking for Nature brings those values to life in a modern context: caring for our shared environment. Through creative, hands-on experiences and strong community involvement, young people learn that protecting nature is part of who they are — as athletes, as leaders, and as citizens. Families and neighbours are brought into the process too, creating a ripple effect that changes whole communities.

The programme’s impact has grown beyond Brazil, inspiring the creation of the Martial Arts Coalition for Sustainable Development, a global network helping martial arts organisations embrace sustainability.

Kicking for Nature redefines what it means to be a martial artist. Not just skill, not just respect—but responsibility, in every sense of the word.

The FIS CO₂ Calculator is a pioneering, free tool that helps sports event organisers simulate, measure, and reduce their carbon emissions. Developed by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation in collaboration with the Green Producers Tool (GPT), it is tailored to the unique needs of snow sports and built on the globally recognised GHG Protocol.

Unlike traditional carbon calculators, the FIS CO₂ Calculator focuses also on ex ante planning – enabling organisers to model different options during the design phase, before decisions are finalised. This empowers them to make data-driven, lower-impact choices in areas like transport, energy, accommodation, logistics, and temporary infrastructure.

Already used in some World Cup and Championship events during its first season, the tool has helped organisers avoid emissions, improve sustainability reporting, and build climate action into the core of event planning. It is inclusive, scalable, and supported by a peer-learning community that fosters collaboration and knowledge sharing.

With future updates planned to include emissions from construction and permanent infrastructure, the calculator is more than a reporting tool – it is a catalyst for long-term behavioural change. By shifting the focus from compensation to prevention, it is helping redefine how sustainability is approached in global sport.

Logan has developed an expansive portfolio of successful sustainability initiatives at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and across the INDYCAR Series in a very short amount of time. He showed signs of his passion for the planet early, while he worked in the facilities department then the ticketing office of IMS.

Logan’s passions made him the obvious choice to lead our work at the Speedway and across the Series when the time came to fill the Sustainability Program Leader position for the business in 2022. In the 3.5 years since, Logan has led our efforts, propelling IMS and INDYCAR to the forefront of American motorsports, even getting us some looks on the world stage where sport and sustainability meet.

There’s a saying, “passion persuades,” that fits Logan perfectly. The passion he showed early in his IMS career has persuaded internal stakeholders and executives, race teams across the INDYCAR Series and throughout our ecosystem of partners and sponsors. Logan’s journey has just begun. His early contributions and leadership are already an indelible and undeniable addition to our sport, venue, series and business. He is truly a “next generation trailblazer.”

Declutter & Do Good was a national circular campaign by kitround and Visa, launched to tackle kit inequality in women’s football by turning surplus into access and sustainability into action.

At its core was kitround’s circular commerce platform, enabling families to donate pregamed kit through David Lloyd Clubs and Visa offices. Over 6,000 items were collected and redistributed, generating over £ 60,000 for grassroots charities, while avoiding over 28,000 kg of CO₂e and more than a million landfill years.

Visa brought amplification and incentive: from athlete storytelling to pop-up activations and a £1 donation mechanic per Visa transaction. kitround360 tracked the financial, environmental and social impact of the campaign.

This wasn’t CSR. It was circular infrastructure in motion.

The campaign demonstrated behaviour change; parents engaged. Athletes led. Donors saw their impact.

The campaign inspired others: post-activation, new schools, clubs, and national governing bodies partnered with kitround to adapt the model to their communities.

Together, the partnership didn’t just raise funds or awareness, it proved that circular sport can be credible, trackable, and scalable.

Ocean Conservancy’s Protect Where We Play initiative and GOAL joined forces to tackle the issue of single-use plastic waste in sports and live entertainment venues. Their shared goal: to pilot a reusable cup program that demonstrates both environmental and business value. Ocean Conservancy brought expertise in ocean protection and fan engagement, while GOAL offered access and expertise to sustainability-minded venues across North America. Together, they created a model that reframes sustainability as a fan-driven, branded experience—activating audiences to reduce waste and inspiring broader industry adoption.

The partnership’s primary objective is to prevent one million single-use plastic cups from entering the waste stream, with early pilots already showing over 70% return rates. The first year serves as a proof of concept to validate the financial and operational feasibility of reuse systems. After the tour, both partners will agree on a permanent use for the cups to ensure ongoing impact.

Beyond the events, the partnership will share results and key learnings with peers, venue operators, and partners, helping to scale waste-free solutions across the industry. It sets a new standard for climate-conscious innovation—proving that when purpose, operations, and fan culture align, sustainability can be both effective and enduring.

Sport and the environment are closely connected, but this relationship is under threat from global warming and climate change. Brian McCullough reviews the sport ecology research landscape and finds that the research focuses on how sports organizations, from individual events to the entire global sector, tackle climate change in two main ways reducing environmental impact and adapting to environmental changes.

He examines previous research in these areas and identifies gaps that need to be addressed to improve our understanding of environmental management in sports. He also explores practical responses to climate change, using examples from other fields to enhance research and guide industry practices.

As the sports sector evolves, there is a growing movement where sports organizations face pressure to align their environmental values with their operations, such as reducing short-haul flights and reconsidering carbon-intensive sponsorships. Brian offers recommendations on how sports organizations can engage fans and participants in meaningful climate action, demonstrating clear results and the role that academic research can have in supporting industry efforts to be more sustainable.

In just four years, Liverpool Football Club has pioneered one of the most ambitious and comprehensive sustainability transformations in global sport through its holistic strategy, The Red Way. Embedding environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles into every aspect of the club’s operations, The Red Way drives measurable impact while supporting commercial growth and community wellbeing.

Since launching in 2021, Liverpool FC has reduced its carbon emissions by 15% against a 2019–20 baseline, transitioned 96% of its energy use to renewable sources, and increased matchday plastic bottle recycling from 25% to 90%. The club’s expanded Anfield stadium and state of the art Melwood training facility showcase sustainability by design, incorporating low-carbon construction and biodiversity enhancements.

The Red Way is governed at board level, aligned to 16 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, and validated by internationally recognised standards including ISO 20121, ISO 50001, ISO 45001, and PAS 2060. Beyond operations, Liverpool FC leverages its global platform to unite partners, players, and fans around sustainability, demonstrating football’s unique power to drive systemic change. This ongoing transformation delivers substantial environmental, social, and economic benefits locally and globally, setting a new benchmark for sustainability leadership in sport.