Sport LOCAL For Life
Sport LOCAL For Life is a collective mission to inspire and implement positive change for the
future of sport in response to the climate, nature and health emergency.
We are calling for a boost in local sporting opportunities for all ages and abilities, helping to
reconnect communities and improving people’s wellbeing, whilst engaging in emergency decarbonisation and restoration of nature.
Think global, act local
Sport LOCAL For Life doesn't mean no travelling. It means balancing goals, such as being champion of the world, with being a champion for the Earth, by travelling sustainably using public and active transport. And it does mean rapidly scaling back international competitions.
This is about your team, your club, your country. Whatever level you take part in sport, we will all be affected, in our lifetimes.
You can make these changes NOW! Sport LOCAL For Life will have tremendous benefits AND help keep our planet’s climate stable enough to support life, sport and communities in the future.
For the love of sport, the participants, the fans and all life on Earth, will sport choose Sport Local For Life?
The positive benefits of Sport LOCAL
- MORE SPORT.
- Reduced travel emissions.
- Reduce air pollution.
- Reduced time, money and energy spent travelling.
- Build relationships and connect communities.
- Create local heroes.
- More sporting opportunities for all ages and abilities.
- Improve mental and physical health.
- Protect and restore nature on sports grounds and the local areas surrounding them.
- Compete at regional and international level when it is possible to travel by public transport.
- Pinnacle events are even more special and high profile since they are few.
Vision:
Sport Local is a vision of a clear-eyed and inspirational emergency response to the environmental crisis. It is the adoption of a leadership position that will both inspire and create positive change, embracing the responsibility that comes with sport’s huge reach and power to influence.
With Sport Local, there would be a move to re-localise sport with an emphasis on reconnecting with grassroots values of participation, wellbeing, community and joy. Simultaneously, the international sporting calendar would be refocused onto pinnacle events, minimising the impact of international competition schedules.
Sport Local would bring more sport to more people, increasing mental, physical and community health and at the same time demonstrating that tackling the climate and ecological emergency will bring many benefits. Sport Local is the embodiment of a desire for people today and in the future to enjoy sport and the many benefits it brings, as well as protecting all life on earth.
How far is sport willing to go to save sport?
The biggest move that sport could make right now would be to cancel the 2024 international competition schedule besides the Olympic Games. SHOCK HORROR! Do what?
Pause pollution, await solutions and focus on Sport LOCAL For Life: boosting sporting opportunities for all ages, abilities and communities whilst focusing on emergency mode decarbonisation and restoration of nature.
Perhaps more palatable would be to halve the 2024 competition schedule to rapidly cut emissions by 50 percent year on year to achieve ZERO emissions within a few years.
The minimum sport must do is to reduce emissions by 15% each year to reach zero emissions by 2030.
* There is an argument for allowing a limited number of major international events to continue through the transition for all the positive benefits that elite level sport creates. Having fewer events would make those that are hosted even more special and pausing the majority of events will save millions of tonnes of emissions annually. The knock-on effect could have a hugely positive effect in reducing emissions. This could be achieved with an initial carbon budget for sport.
Hopefully the solutions will fall into place quickly and enable us to return to a globalised competition schedule, one that puts athlete well-being ahead of profit.
Visioning Sport LOCAL
"We have to first dream it, before we can achieve it" - Laura Baldwin OLY
This is an invitation to vision how 2030 could be if we did everything possible between now and then to address the multiple crises we face. This is fun. Allow yourself time to daydream, imagine how much better life could be, in fact, lets make it as exciting, delightful and irresistible as possible so that people want to make the positive changes happen..
What could Sport LOCAL look like where you live?
What could Sport LOCAL look like where you live? How can you help to rapidly respond to the climate emergency and make sport LOCAL?
Share your plans with us today, ask for help to host an online or in person workshop.