Are you a Champion of Sustainability?

How sustainable is your organisation?

How sustainable are your members and suppliers?

Global Sustainable Sport (GSS) is inviting organisations to participate in the free Global Sustainable Sports Survey, one of the most comprehensive surveys of sport and sustainability around the world.

Click here to participate in the Global Sustainable Sports Survey now.

Sport and Sustainability

GSS believes that sport has the power to inspire and engage fans and participants from all over the world to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle, and that sport can play an important role in driving a more sustainable future for sport, people and the planet.

Sport has a broader framework than existing sustainability frameworks which are based on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards and therefore it needs its own framework to capture the true value of sport.

Through our work with academics and industry practitioners, GSS has analysed these existing ESG frameworks, and other reporting methods, and developed a standard framework for sport called the seven GSS Sustainable Pillars of Sport.

GSS Sustainable Pillars of Sport

Currently GSS has defined the seven GSS Sustainable Pillars of Sport as:

1. Partnerships (Working Together): Sport plays a vital role in bringing people together and inspiring people in a way that many other sectors cannot. As is commonly stated, “Sport has the power to change the world”. By coming together in partnership, sport has the chance to use this power, and its global voice, to help drive a more sustainable future.
2. Participation (Sport): One of sport’s greatest assets is encouraging people to get active. Given the global levels of obesity and inactivity in the world today, sport can play a key role in encouraging people to participate in some form of sport or physical activity.
3. People (Social): Sport can play a vital role in every aspect of improving social outcomes. Sport can play a leading role in helping to reduce poverty, hunger and inequality and improve education, diversity, water, sanitation, health and well-being.
4. Planet (Environmental): Sport can lead the way on environmental sustainability, climate action and protecting “Life below water” and “Life on Land”.
5. Power (Governance): Sport can lead the way in pushing for world peace, reducing conflicts, transparent management, ethical leadership and promoting good governance.
6. Profile (Media): Sport helps to promote cities, countries and brands all over the world. With access to over half of the world’s population, sport can use its global media platform to help promote sustainability.
7. Prosperity (Economic/Financial): Sport can lead the way in driving better economic outcomes through sport and promoting other elements of economic activity like sustainable tourism and travel.

Global Sustainable Sports Survey

Through the Global Sustainable Sports Survey GSS hopes to identify which organisations are driving sustainability through sport and which organisations need further support and guidance.

Each question will try to identify what stage each organisation has reached with its sustainability programme. At the end of the survey each organisation will be provided with a summary of its responses.

GSS Champions of Sustainability Programme

Organisations who participate in the GSS Survey will be invited to participate in the Champions of Sustainability programme and to achieve an official Champion of Sustainability rating through the GSS online assessment platform. Every organisation that achieves some level of rating will appear on the Champions of Sustainability map.

The aim of the Champions of Sustainability programme is to help every sports organisation, federation, team, league, club, event, venue, host city, nation, brand, broadcaster, and supplier become a “Champion of Sustainability”. It is both aspirational and inclusive.

The first phase of the Champions of Sustainability programme is the GSS Preliminary Assessment which gives an organisation a high-level assessment of their sustainability.

Each organisation or event will be assessed using GSS’s Online Digital Assessment platform. This will be a self-assessment based on the GSS Sustainable Pillars of Sport. Each organisation that goes through the GSS Preliminary Assessment process will be provided with a provisional Champions Rating.

GSS Educational Programme

This preliminary assessment will enable an organisation or event to understand where it is on its sustainability journey and how it can develop its sustainability programme.

Following this preliminary assessment, an organisation can elect to undertake a more in-depth annual assessment where the organisation is assessed in greater detail across the GSS Sustainable Pillars of Sport.

Each organisation will then be awarded an official Champion rating for their sustainability activities in that year. As part of this in-depth assessment an annual report would be produced on the organisation’s sustainability activities based on the GSS Sustainable Pillars of Sport.

GSS will publish a series of reports based on the organisations participating in the Champions programme.

Organisations that participate in the Champions programme will then be included in the GSS Champions of Sustainability Awards programme for that year.

The Champions programme will be supported by a series of workshops and an educational programme which will help sports organisations move through the various stages, from planning to developing, developed, advanced and, finally, becoming a Champion.

The self-paced, online programme equips sustainability managers, senior execs, commercial or communications professionals with sustainability essentials as well as in-depth views, delivered by experts from around the world.

The programme allows for a customised curriculum based on individual needs, allowing each person to select individual workshops & modules to create their own learning pathway or sign up for the whole course.

The Core Modules are built upon one another, providing a clear roadmap to follow. The Deep Dive modules see industry experts providing insights into some of the most relevant areas of sustainability in sport. Each module takes around 120-180 minutes and is composed of different elements such as videos, readings, quizzes, or podcasts, fostering maximum engagement.

Workshops are organised throughout the year, involving industry experts sharing their knowledge and experience across each of the seven GSS Sustainable Pillars of Sport.

It may take many years for an organisation to reach such a level, but by embarking on the programme, sports stakeholders will receive guidance and direction towards developing a strong and meaningful sustainability strategy, making a positive impact along the way.

GSS Champion of Sustainability Programme Packages 

Further information on the packages is available on the GSS website.

How sustainable is your organisation?

To get started, take the Global Sustainable Sports Survey and find out how sustainable your organisation is. Click here to participate.