How to screen-out polluting sponsors: a low carbon toolkit for sports organisations

Summary

Global heating, and its impacts, threaten upheaval in the world of sport. While many sports organisations are pushing ahead with sustainability strategies and pledges to cut emissions, there remains a big, branded elephant in the room: sport is increasingly being used as an advertising billboard for polluting businesses pushing goods and services that are disproportionately responsible for driving climate change. As the impacts of climate disruption become impossible to ignore, and fans and athletes alike make demands on sports organisations to take action, commercial partnerships with big polluters present sport with multiple risks: reputational, financial, and social. But with these challenges come huge opportunities for sports organisations to chart a new course that will benefit fans, athletes, clubs and communities alike. Taking decisive action on sponsorship deals and commercial partnerships with polluting businesses could open new avenues for commercial relationships, provide fresh ways to engage fans and the wider public, and usher in a more comprehensive way of thinking about sustainability in sport. This toolkit makes the case for greater ambition on matters of sponsorship and commercial partnerships, and provides the evidence, advice and guidance required to turn ambition into a reality.

In this toolkit you’ll find out:

• How polluting sponsorship deals and commercial partnerships within sport stall climate action and undermine
  sustainable changes in behaviour.
• How to analyse and navigate the reputational, economic and social risks associated with these types of deals.
• How to embed commercial partnerships and sponsorship within broader sustainability strategies.

Here are several ways that sports organisations can screen-out polluting sponsors (See Section 7). They can:

1. Introduce robust due diligence tests and screening for prospective commercial partners: to reduce the risks of partnering with polluters, introduce more stringent requirements for prospective commercial partners.
2. Set guiding principles for prospective commercial partners: sports organisations can create a set of guiding principles for prospective commercial partners, engaging players, fans and the surround community in the process.
3. Screen-out highly polluting commercial partners: more ambitious sports organisations may introduce blanket bans on certain industries, such as fossil fuels.
4. Join a recognised green sponsorship pledge and/or accreditation: there are a initiatives around the world that bring together like-minded organisations to pledge to phase-out or ban polluting partnerships.
5. Use contractual terms and provisions to minimise risks: Including specific requirements within “coolerplate” clauses can give sports organisations more oversight, rights, and power.
6. Embed commercial partnerships and sponsorship into sustainability strategies and ESG workstreams: Integrating all this within a single ESG framework is the most effective method of ensuring its longevity and success.

Find the whole toolkit here.