Today, October 6th is #GreenSportsDay.
There is a lot happening this week in the #GreenSportsWorld.
The BBC Green Sports Awards, in partnership with the Sport Positive Summit recognise individuals and organisations from around the world who are actively contributing to a more sustainable future will be announced on 7th October. There are lots of Aussie’s up for awards including.
“ World Athlete of the Year nominee: Rhydian Cowley
Cowley is described as a "powerful advocate for a sustainable future". In the build-up to the Olympics, the Australian race walker balanced his intense training with active climate advocacy. As a spokesperson for the Rings of Fire report, he shares personal experiences with heat and competition to highlight climate change's impact on athletes. In June 2024, he was one of 14 athletes to sign an open letter urging the International Olympic Committee to drop Toyota as a major sponsor. Cowley, 33, consistently promotes environmental sustainability and participates in high-profile initiatives to mobilise athletes globally. He has also partnered with schools and community groups to promote environmental education.
Evergreen Athlete of the Year nominees: Adrian 'Ace' Buchan
Buchan is a professional surfer and passionate climate advocate, playing a significant role in environmental activism. He was a founding board member of an Australian charity dedicated to combating climate change and an ambassador for a non-profit organisation working on climate-crisis mitigation, coastal and marine conservation, and addressing plastic pollution, and advocates for a charity aimed at reducing plastic pollution. When he won $25,000 for ocean advocacy in 2020, he donated the prize money to the Climate Council. The 42-year-old sits on the board at governing body Surfing Australia and in the past year has made significant strides through his leadership at Surfers for Climate.
Elite Organisation of the Year nominees: Professional Footballers, Australia
The PFA facilitated the inaugural 'Green Games' as a way of bringing climate and sustainability into the A-Leagues and into the conversation on football pitches. The initiative coincided with the release of its Stoppage Time report, which examined football’s impact on climate in Australia and New Zealand. The two matches that made up the Green Games focused on reducing carbon pollution, offsetting unavoidable emissions, introducing new sustainable practices at clubs, and raising awareness about the relationship between climate change and football.
Grassroots Organisation of the Year nominees:
Cricket for Climate
Founded by Green Sport Awards Athlete of the Year 2023 Pat Cummins, Cricket for Climate is still very young, but has already - among other things: Installed at zero cost to clubs more than 400 kW of solar power across cricket facilities; removed more than 8,000 tonnes of carbon emissions and saved more than $1m in energy bills over the lifetime of the solar installations; designed and run a pilot for players and cricket leaders as trusted messengers on climate; and educated the 108 cricket member nations on the impacts of climate on cricket and activated them towards practical action on climate change at the annual ICC Global conference.
Surfers for Climate
An Australian-based charity, Surfers for Climate campaigns to prevent offshore oil and gas drilling, expand Australia's network of surfing reserves, and end the sport's reliance on fossil fuels. In March 2024, the New South Wales parliament passed an amendment to legislation banning all offshore oil and gas in its waters, and Surfers for Climate is campaigning for Australia's six other states and territories to follow suit. It has also partnered with PhD candidate Tom Wilson on an initiative which aims to lead the surf community to embrace sustainable solutions and reduce the environmental impact of surfing. (BBC, 2024, Details of other nominees can also be found here.
The annual Sport Positive Summit in collaboration with UNFCCC and IOC, kicks off on 8th October. You can still register virtually here: https://www.sportpositivesummit.com/.
It doesn’t give you access to everything, but if (like me) you can’t sit up all night, you can access the recorded sessions for 3 months after the event.
Sport Positive is also hosting an additional round of awards.
"Sport Positive Awards 2024 is a global industry awards that celebrates, uplifts and raises awareness of organisations and individuals who are leading the charge on using the power of sport to tackle some of the biggest issues of our time – the climate and biodiversity crises and environmental/climate justice.
Categories include: Transformation, Climate Impact Reduction, Community Initiative, Education and Training, Purpose-led Partnership, Biodiversity Project, Next Generation Trailblazer, Regional Leaders, Campaign of the Year, Story of the Year, Report of the Year, Research Paper of the Year and Inspired Innovation." (Sports Positive, 2024)
You can check out the shortlist for the categories here: https://awards.sportpositivesummit.com/spashortlists-2024/
Regional Leaders nominated for Oceania include Emma Pocock, Dr Sheila Nguyen and Greg Dingle PhD.
Across these activations, summits and awards there is an increasing focus on the role of nature and how our actions in the sport can positively protect, restore and grow nature in the places we play and for the people and species that live there.
And if you want to see just how big a deal this is in the mainstream vs the greeny stream, there are some very big conversations this big week and this month for nature globally.
Australia hosts the first Global Nature Positive Summit 2024, 8 – 10 October, Gadigal Country, Sydney, Australia. It is an invitation only event (if anyone from sport has managed to get a seat at the table power to you) At the Summit, leaders will explore effective ways to realise global commitments under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The event will build understanding of changes required to systems and settings to value nature and address biodiversity loss.
The 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) starts on October 21 in Cali, Colombia, to accelerate the implementation of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Sport has also been charged to accelerate the implementation of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, to change systems across operations and delivery, governance and strategy and, (critically), to inspire others to do the same – more people, more often and in more places collectively valuing and acting for nature. The sports sector even has its own global framework, based on the Kunming Montreal biodiversity Framework, to support us to do this Sports for Nature. Sports for Nature is a collaboration between the International Union for the Conservation of Nature IUCN, IOC, Convention on Biological Diversity CBD, United Nations Environment Program UNEP and Dona Bertarelli Philanthropy.
We do not have an Australian Signatory to Sports for Nature (S4N).
(and we have only 9 Signatories to the global Sports for Climate Action Framework (SCAF) including Sail GP AUS, MCC, AFL Players Association, AOC, Richmond Football Club, Water Polo Australia, Hockey Australia, Tennis Australia, Bowls Australia).
Becoming a signatory to S4N and reporting to the framework aligns a sport to the Kumning Montreal Biodiversity Framework and its goals, and also the SDGs. The SCAF is aligned to the goals of the Paris Agreement and the SDGS.
Australia as a nation is commited to the global goals and targets of the Paris Agreement, the Kumning Montreal Biodiversity Framework and the Sustainable Development Goals. Australian Sports who commit to SCAF and S4N are supporting Australia to reach international commitments to the global goals.
SAIL GP is a great place to see strategic responses, campaigns and sustainable place making for biodiversity in ocean and coastal ladnscapes. Their new initiative “SAIL GPs Team of Creatures” is a partnership between SAIL GP and Creatures United
“We’ve teamed up with Creatures United - the organisation that is on a mission to help humans understand the biodiversity crisis the planet is facing - to create a team of six Creatures with human-like characteristics. A team of champions for the League’s Purpose storytelling, and advocates of the Impact League.
As it stands, 2 million species are threatened with extinction - a global crisis that is impacting every aspect of our lives as humans, from food to water; medicines to climate.
Together, Creatures United and SailGP aim to show that the human world and the natural world are not separate, but one and the same thing. And that together we have the power to reverse this crisis, affecting our planet.
We’re all in the same boat.”
We can see from the awards that sport in Australia is heading in the right direction and power to all the great people doing amazing work. Thankyou.
To Federal and State Government Sports Departments – the dots are so clear, we don’t need to wait for the stars to align, the international resources are available and now you need to play your part on team planet to support and to work with Australian sport to apply some of the green and gold crazy home ground advantage for our planet, our places of play.
We have already breached 6 of thte 9 planetary boundaries - lets keep biodiversity off the list. https://www.weforum.org/videos/earth-planetary-boundaries/
#greenplanetsport #regenerativesport #teamplanet #generationrestoration #sports4nature #sportsforclimateaction #restorationdecadeallinace #rewildingsport #sportpostive #BBCSport #cricketforclimate #surfersforclimate #worldathletics #sailgp #sportaustralia #tennisaustralia #MCC #MCG #waterpoloaustralia #richmondfootballclub #bowlsaustralia #footyforclimate #hockeyaustralia #naturepositive #AOC #climatecomeback
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