Three Years of Research. One New Benchmark for Sport.

Since 2023, the GSS team has analysed more than 5,000 organisations across 200+ countries and 150+ sports, reviewing thousands of sustainability reports, annual publications, strategies, policies, websites and public disclosures.

The result is a new framework designed to help sports organisations measure, benchmark and communicate sustainability, purpose and impact across the 7 Sustainable Pillars of Sport: Partnerships, Participation, People, Planet, Power, Profile and Prosperity.

For GSS, however, the SPI Assessment Programme was never simply about creating another rating or ranking. It has been created to help sport understand where it stands today and what steps it needs to take to become more sustainable, purposeful and impactful by 2030—bringing athletes, participants, fans and stakeholders on that journey.

Sport has the power to engage more than five billion fans and one billion participants worldwide and inspire positive change at a scale few other sectors can achieve.

With less than five years remaining to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and a growing number of climate, social and governance commitments being made across the sector, the next four years represent a critical period for sport.

The SPI Assessment Programme aims to support that journey by helping organisations establish a baseline, identify opportunities for improvement and demonstrate meaningful progress over time.

Mike Laflin, Founder and CEO of Global Sustainable Sport, said:

“For three years we have been analysing sports organisations from every corner of the world to understand what sustainability leadership really looks like in sport. What we have discovered is encouraging. There are organisations making genuine progress across all seven pillars, but there is still enormous opportunity for sport to better measure, evidence and communicate its impact.

“The SPI Assessment Programme has been created to help organisations understand where they are today, where they want to be tomorrow and how they can contribute to a more sustainable future by 2030.”

The First Leaders Are Emerging

The preliminary findings reveal that only four organisations have currently achieved a B Rating (Purpose Leader), placing them at the summit of the SPI Index as it stands today.

UEFA currently leads the index through a comprehensive approach to sustainability that spans governance, competitions, event delivery, reporting and stakeholder engagement. Through its Strength Through Unity strategy, annual Respect reporting and support for all 55 member associations, UEFA has established one of the most mature sustainability frameworks in world sport today.

Liverpool FC follows closely behind. Through The Red Way, its club-wide sustainability strategy, Liverpool has demonstrated how climate action, community impact, inclusion, transparency and supporter engagement can be brought together under a single strategic framework by a progressive football club.

Arsenal and Manchester City complete the current B Podium. Unlike Liverpool, neither club relies upon a single overarching sustainability strategy. Instead, both have developed strong evidence across governance, environmental performance, community programmes, infrastructure investment and stakeholder engagement. Their success demonstrates that there is no single route to sustainability leadership.

European Football Throws Down the Challenge

While the four organisations currently occupying the B Podium all come from European football, they are far from alone.

The upper tiers of the SPI Index are increasingly populated by clubs, leagues and governing bodies from across the continent. Wolverhampton Wanderers, Atlético de Madrid, FC Barcelona, FC St. Pauli, Borussia Dortmund, VfL Wolfsburg, Real Betis Balompié, Juventus, FC Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur and Valencia CF all feature among the strongest-performing organisations assessed to date. The Premier League is currently the sole football league represented at C+, while the major football nations are represented by the national federations from England, Italy, Germany and France.

The strength of European football reflects more than financial resources. It reflects increasing stakeholder expectations, stronger governance frameworks, more sophisticated sustainability reporting and a growing recognition that long-term success is linked not only to sporting and commercial performance, but also to social and environmental impact.

For now, European football has thrown down the gauntlet, accounting for more than 65% of organisations represented across the B and C+ Podiums. It has established the benchmark against which others will be measured.

Leadership Emerging Across Sport

Beyond football, the SPI Index reveals encouraging signs of progress across the wider sporting landscape.

International federations continue to play a central role in driving sustainability across sport. Organisations including the International Olympic Committee, World Rugby, the International Biathlon Union, FIA, World Athletics and the International Hockey Federation all feature strongly within the C+ Podium and are helping shape sustainability agendas that influence thousands of organisations worldwide.

In addition to the four national football federations, governing bodies from other sports are also gaining momentum. The England and Wales Cricket Board, the Lawn Tennis Association and the Scottish Rugby Union demonstrate how sustainability is increasingly becoming embedded within governance, participation programmes, facilities management and strategic planning. Other clubs are represented by the Marylebone Cricket Club, while Formula E provides strong representation for global sporting series.

The findings also reveal leadership emerging across a diverse range of sports. Tennis, cricket, rugby, motorsport, biathlon, athletics and field hockey are all represented within the upper tiers of the SPI Index, demonstrating that sustainability leadership is no longer confined to a single sport or organisational model.

Europe Leads – But The Race Is Global

The preliminary findings reveal a strong European presence throughout the SPI Index.

Organisations from the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Italy, France and wider Europe account for the majority of organisations currently represented within the B and C+ Podiums.

At the same time, the relative absence of organisations from other regions highlights one of the most interesting findings from the research.

This is not to suggest that important work is not taking place elsewhere in the world. Rather, it demonstrates the maturity of sustainability reporting and governance frameworks that have developed across much of European sport during the past decade.

The forthcoming C Podiums, due to be announced in the coming weeks, are expected to reveal a much broader geographical spread and showcase organisations from Asia, North America, Oceania and Africa that are making significant progress in sustainability, purpose and impact. They are also expected to highlight a number of organisations whose sustainability performance deserves greater recognition.

The challenge has been laid down. The question now is who will respond.

The Journey Has Only Just Begun

One of the most encouraging findings from the preliminary assessment is that sustainability leadership across sport is still emerging.

While more than 30 organisations have already achieved B and C+ ratings, no organisation has yet reached the Impact Leader (A), Impact Champion (A+) or Purpose Champion (B+) Podiums. At the same time, more than 50% of organisations assessed currently remain at U Status (Unclassified), reflecting the fact that many organisations are still at an early stage of their sustainability journey or have yet to publicly demonstrate sufficient evidence across the seven pillars.

For GSS, this represents one of the greatest opportunities facing sport.

The challenge is not simply to do more. It is to better understand, measure and communicate the impact that sport can have on people, communities and the planet—and bring stakeholders with them on the journey.

The SPI framework is designed to recognise progression. Organisations begin by embedding sustainability, evolve towards purpose and ultimately seek to demonstrate measurable impact. The journey from Sustainable to Purposeful to Impactful sits at the heart of the SPI Assessment Programme and reflects the wider ambition of helping sport accelerate progress towards 2030.

What Does an SPI Assessment Look Like?

While the SPI Index recognises leadership, the assessment itself is designed to help organisations improve.

Every organisation receives a detailed analysis of performance across the 7 Sustainable Pillars of Sport, highlighting strengths, development opportunities and priority actions.

The example above shows a typical SPI assessment output. In this example, the organisation achieved a C+ (Purpose Advanced) rating, demonstrating strong performance in Partnerships while identifying opportunities to strengthen environmental performance. The example below shows a breakdown pillar-by-pillar on how an organisation scored within the sub-indicators.

The assessment provides a practical roadmap that organisations can use to support strategy development, sustainability reporting, stakeholder engagement and long-term decision-making.

Beyond the Podiums

The organisations highlighted in these preliminary findings are not the winners of the 2026 SPI Index. They are simply the current leaders.

Over the coming months, additional organisations will be assessed, new evidence will be incorporated, and existing organisations will have opportunities to improve their ratings as they continue to develop their sustainability programmes.

The first edition of the SPI Ratings, SPI Index rankings and GSS Purpose Podiums will be published at the end of 2026, with regular updates during the course of the year.

But the bigger ambition extends beyond the podiums themselves.

Sport has the ability to reach and inspire more than five billion fans and one billion participants around the world. Few sectors possess such influence across communities, cultures and generations.

If sports organisations can demonstrate genuine leadership on sustainability, purpose and impact, they have the potential to influence how billions of people think, behave and act—creating change at a scale few sectors can match.

Laflin added:

“The SPI Index is not an end in itself. It is a tool to help sport understand its potential and accelerate progress towards 2030.

“Our ambition is not simply to identify the most sustainable organisations. It is to help build a sports sector that creates positive impact at a scale few other industries can achieve.

“If sport can inspire even a fraction of its five billion followers to think and act more sustainably, the impact could be transformational. That is why SPI exists. Not simply to measure progress, but to help sport realise its potential as a force for positive change.”

The race to the Purpose Podiums has begun.

The journey to 2030 starts now.

Register here to receive your SPI Rating and join the SPI Assessment Programme for 2026