Richmond’s commitment to developing a more environmentally sustainable business has taken a significant step forward with a new partnership giving it access to world’s best practice.
Richmond is the first AFL club to become a signatory to the United Nations’ Sports for Climate Action Initiative. As a partner organisation, the Club will work with other like-minded sporting organisations globally to identify innovative ways to reduce its carbon footprint.
The Sports for Climate Action initiative, which falls under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), commits to five key principles:
1. Undertake systematic efforts to promote greater environmental responsibility
2. Reduce overall climate impact
3. Educate for climate action
4. Promote sustainable and responsible consumption
5. Advocate for climate action through communication
“This is a significant step in our sustainability journey. We aren’t the experts so it’s important keep developing opportunities like this so we can not only make meaningful change to how we operate as a business, but also build awareness more broadly,” Richmond CEO, Brendon Gale said. “Not only do we all have a responsibility to future generations, but equally, to Australia’s First Peoples who nurtured this land for tens of thousands of years.”
In becoming a signatory of the UNFCCC, the Club joins the MCC, Tennis Australia and Bowls Australia as one of four Australian sporting organisations to join the global framework. Other signatories include the New York Yankees, World Surf League, the All England Tennis Club and the NBA.
“We look forward to helping create awareness of the urgent need for behavioural change so as to lessen the impact on our natural environment,” Richmond President Peggy O’Neal added.
“We must also ensure that we take a business-wide approach so that the Club operates sustainably and does its part to help create spaces where sport can be enjoyed long into the future.”
Earlier this year, Richmond joined the Sports Environment Alliance (SEA), with a number of Australia’s top sporting organisations and other AFL clubs, in a committed effort to lead on and off the field in doing more for our environment, with less of a carbon footprint.
Subsequently, the Club has also formed an internal working committee, (Richmond Environmental Action Team (REACT) and is undergoing an environmental audit, in an effort to understand its existing carbon footprint and how it can be reduced.
