Sports sustainability: How to resonate with fans

“Sport has the unique ability in our culture to have a hugely positive social and economic impact, as well as the potential to become a role model and leader around climatic, environmental and inclusion challenges.”

This remark from Alex Smith, Co-Founder and Partner at The Sustainability Group and FuturePlus, sums up the importance of sports sustainability.

Alex joined our latest webinar – Relative Connect: Tracking fans’ views on sporting sustainability – to discuss this topic, alongside Relative Insight Customer Success Manager, Matt Rattée, and Content Marketing Manager, Alister Houghton.

The trio presented joint research that analyzed fans’ views on sustainability in sport. They discussed sports’ impact on areas of sustainability – such as climate change – as well as how these areas are affecting aspects of sports, including fan experience.

Alex also highlighted examples of sports focused on sustainability, as well as the steps all organizations can take when endeavoring to become more sustainable.

Read the rest of this summary to get a quick overview of what our panelists discussed. To watch the full on-demand webinar, register using the banner below.

How organizations should approach improving sustainability

Alex emphasized that acting on sustainability, whether in sport or in business generally, requires an understanding of your situation. She acknowledged that organizations can’t do everything at once — they need to be strategic about what areas to focus on:

“We speak to a lot of businesses about this. It’s really about understanding what they’re doing as an organization, the impact it has on them and the impact they’re having on the communities they operate within.

“Have a fundamental understanding of what you are doing, what your plans are around that and your communication around it. Understanding the real bedrock of what you do as a foundation really helps when you’re reacting and mitigating issues as they arise in conversations.”

She cited the example of Extreme E. Despite being a motor sport, the organization has mitigated as many of its impacts as possible. This includes using electric vehicles, a focus on digital content rather than fans traveling to events, plus each team having one male and female driver to demonstrate equality.

“It’s an event that has legacy programs, looks at the diversity and inclusion of motor racing, considers its impact and reports on it transparently,” Alex stated. She added: “There’s huge lessons that can be learned on how you can do things differently, even if you’re a legacy event.”

Understanding how fans view sustainable sports

Fans are integral to sport, so understanding their viewpoint is crucial for organizations in the sector. Relative Insight and FuturePlus did exactly this, analyzing five years’ worth of fan conversations around key sustainability themes.

During the webinar, Alister presented the report’s findings. He demonstrated that fans’ discussions around different areas of sports sustainability were unpredictable. Using Relative Insight’s Heartbeat tool, he visualized these areas to demonstrate that themes rose and fell dramatically.

“We initially compared conversations around two years: 2018 and 2023,” Alister noted, adding: “Fans were 1.7x more likely to talk about ‘climate change’ and 5.0x times more likely to talk about ‘renewables’. This suggested a steady increase in awareness around these themes.

“However, when plotted over time in a chart, you can see these themes are volatile, with peaks and troughs.”

Despite this volatility, conversations were also cyclical. While unpredictable, what was clear is that each theme will surface at some point. Alex highlighted that organizations needed to take a holistic approach to all aspects of sustainability to ensure they’re prepared for each area potentially coming into focus.

You can read our findings in full using the banner below.

The impact of climate change on fans and athletes

Sustainability incorporates a range of elements, with sports impacting all of them. During the webinar, the issue of sport, climate change and the environment featured most prominently among themes surrounding sustainability.

Both Alex and Alister highlighted the Rings of Fire report, which warns that an increase in extreme heat globally could spell the end of the summer Olympic Games. Each panelist shared examples where fans and athletes had been impacted by environmental issues.

Alex discussed athletes having to train in countries other than their own due to environmental concerns. For example, a British windsurfer is currently traveling to Europe to train due to issues with sewage and water quality in the UK.

She also highlighted a typhoon disrupting the 2019 Rugby World Cup and bushfires reducing air quality at the Australian Open tennis as the type of impacts that will be increasingly common at sporting events.

Alister noted that these issues also affect fan experience. He cited previous research from Relative Insight around fans complaining about standing in line outside Allegiant Stadium in extreme heat, as well as attendees of an NFL playoff game in Kansas City having limbs amputated due to frostbite.

Find out everything our panelists had to say by registering to watch the webinar in full now.