Submitted by Paul Coleman, Carbon Clarity.
Professional Tennis player Alexander Zverev, currently ranked No. 13 in the World, and his team have conducted an audit of their carbon emissions for a full year of travel prior to his injury in June 2022. They discovered that Alexander and his team travels approximately 500,000 kilometers per year, which equates to 250 tons of carbon equivalent emissions over the course of the period from May 2021 to May 2022.
Through auditing and quantifying the travel emissions, Alexander and his team have empowered their ability to take appropriate action, firstly by purchasing verified carbon offsets with the aim of achieving carbon neutrality and secondly by identifying and seeking to implement feasible options to reduce their impact going forward.
Alexander and his team are working with Carbon Clarity, Monaco, an environmental and social consultancy specializing in the latest transportation survey software that efficiently provides the data analytics for players, teams and each individual fan to support each stakeholder in understanding and reducing their carbon footprint impact for travelling to and from the venues.
Recognizing their impact
On a global scale, sports and entertainment have massive loyal followings of passionate fans, each of the touchpoints of players, teams, supporters, sponsors, clubs and local communities are making constant choices that influence the extent of their carbon footprint. By understanding the travel of players, teams and fans in granular detail provides a significant opportunity for sports people, teams and fans to recognize their impact and act together to travel more efficiently and reduce their carbon footprints.
Alexander Zverev“While recovering from my ankle injury and not travelling as much, I had more time to think about the consequence that my team has on the environment, especially in relation to travelling the world chasing titles. The travel audit is just the start, but I want to go much further. My primary aim is to be the best tennis player in the world and to win majors and tournaments everywhere. But I cannot do that without also taking responsibility for our impact on the environment and society.
I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to make a real difference. With the numbers who watch our matches on television and online, we can help influence fans and fellow competitors to make the smart carbon choice and thereby truly deliver a lasting impact.”
Zverev has begun to explore how he can bring his fans into the conversation about climate change.
“I asked the CEO of Carbon Clarity, Paul Coleman, who was helping me to understand how to measure and offset my own carbon emissions, how we could do the same for my fans,” says Zverev.
This was his answer:
Paul Coleman’s five key things sports fans can do for the climate when travelling to matches:
- Aim for the following priorities in this order: walk, cycle, bus, train, car (share whenever you can), plane
- Give preference to sustainable products, fashion, water bottles through searching online for ‘eco friendly products’
- Search out environmentally responsible accommodation through sites like https://ecobnb.com/
- Combine sporting fixtures with family holidays wherever possible
- Tell everybody you know: on social media, at social events and at matches of the simple changes that you have made to be more eco conscious
“I am extremely fortunate to have fabulous sponsors as well, like Adidas, Head, Rolex and others,” adds Zverev. “They already invest substantially in important sustainability programs and products. We have also seen significant progress with the efforts of Ash Barty in raising awareness and action on vital social responsibility issues and what Marcus Rashford has achieved in areas such as race and poverty is amazing.”
For more information on the transportation audit offsetting or further transportation audits, please email [email protected] or call +33(0)633 999 352
Photo by Josh Calabrese on Unsplash
