A new “purpose-led” sports consultancy has officially set sail today in a bid to help international sports organisations such as World Curling, World Squash and UK Sport accelerate climate action.
Officially launched this morning, Sporting Giants claims its aim is to steer UK sporting bodies towards greater sustainability across environmental, social and commercial operations.
Although today marks its hard-launch, the consultancy claims to have already worked with four major global sports brands in developing their sustainability strategies across sailing, rugby, tennis and golf.
Moreover, Sporting Giants also claims to have guided 18 international sports rights holders – including Olympic sports and international federations – towards setting and achieving sustainability targets.
And now, working in partnership with UK Sport and environmental consultancy Useful Projects, the venture is also aiming bring 20 national sporting governing bodies on board through a “first-of-a-kind accelerator” for sustainability, with plans afoot to put another 20 organisations through their paces in future, it said.
Sporting Giants’ CEO and co-founder Scott Over said the “synergies between sustainability and business strategy are substantial” and that “we have seen first-hand the significant value that can be achieved by embracing these synergies and galvanising teams–and global sport at large–around this opportunity”.
“There is immense power in collective action and we are incredibly proud to play a part in protecting the future of sport for generations to come,” he added.
The venture was set up by Over and fellow corporate sustainability expert Dan Reading after the pair met as commercial director and head of sustainability, respectively, at World Sailing.
Reading, Sporting Giants’ co-founder and chief sustainability officer, was previously co-chair of the UN’s Sport for Climate Action Framework, and remains a board member of the British Association for Sustainable Sport, and a sustainability commission member for British Triathlon, RNLI and World Squash.
“With 10 consecutive months of record-breaking temperatures, the urgency for all sectors, including sports, to take climate action has never been clearer,” said Reading. “While sport undoubtedly needs to reduce its impact and innovate in response to our greatest threat, its role extends further.
“Sport also possesses a unique ability to engage and inspire fans globally, driving not only environmental action but also significant social impact. By involving our clients in this journey, I’m optimistic about the transformative power of sport to drive meaningful change and help lead the charge towards a more sustainable and inclusive future.”
It comes amid growing green momentum in the world of sport, amid increasing recognition of the climate and environmental impacts on grassroots and professional sporting competitions and events.
A number of sporting bodies and competitions including Formula One, Formula E and Extreme E have recently unveiled updated sustainability strategies and goals, while the likes of the England and Wales Cricket Board and Sport England have mapped out formal measures to address their climate impact, and England’s Premier League football clubs have also agreed to a new set of environmental actions.
Earlier this month the British Standards Institution (BSI) also published a number of revisions to its event sustainability framework, more than 10 years after guidance was initially released for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
You can now sign up to attend the fifth annual Net Zero Festival, which will be hosted by BusinessGreen on October 22-23 at the Business Design Centre in London
Featured Image Credit: Facebook/ Robin Thacker Rinder, Google satellite
A 92-year-old woman is refusing to back down to a golf club looking to buy her home.
Elizabeth Thacker and her late husband Herman built their home on Stanley Road, Augusta, in 1959 and have raised their kids, grandkids and great-grandkids there.
With this in mind, it’s understandable that the property has a lot of sentimental value to the Thacker family – so much so that Elizabeth has repeatedly said no to millions of dollars to sell it.
The property is thought to be worth around $330,000.
Herman and Elizabeth Thacker built their Georgia home in 1959. (Facebook)
The home is located on the doorstep of the Augusta National Golf Club, which has purchased around 270 acres surrounding its course to expand its facilities.
The club hosts the Masters Tournament each year.
It has been reported by the Wall Street Journal in 2019 that the club has spent $200 million on buying the properties nearby to the popular golf course; and there’s plans to spend more.
Augusta National Golf Club are said to have plans for parking, housing and second 18-hole course down the road.
But there’s one place they won’t be able to complete their expansion, and that’s on Elizabeth’s property.
According to a family member, the 92-year-old is still declining the golf club’s offers to buy her home.
The property is located next to Augusta National Golf Club. (Google Maps)
“Yes, we still own it, and, yes, mom still lives there,” Elizabeth’s daughter, Robin Thacker Rinder, confirmed to Fox Business.
She also went to claim that a representative from Augusta still visits Elizabeth every so often to see if she’s changed her mind about selling up.
While Elizabeth hasn’t sold her home (and doesn’t seem to ever plan to), she and her late husband did sell another of their properties to Augusta.
Located on the same street, the married pair sold a house to the club for $1.2 million.
The property was bulldozed within a week – a fate that the family don’t want for the home Elizabeth currently lives in.
Thousands of golf fans flock to Augusta National Golf Club each year for the Masters Tournament. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Prior to his passing in 2019, Herman had insisted that ‘money ain’t everything’ and that the couple intended to live out their final days together in their house.
Elsewhere, Elizabeth told NJ.com in 2016: “We really don’t want to go.”
The couple even revealed that they’d invite the man representing Augusta National into their home when he’d swing by to try convince them to sell it.
“He’ll say, ‘Just want to let you know we’re still interested in your property’,” Herman shared at the time.
“And we’ll tell him the same thing again.”
Rory McIlroy has revealed he had “a frank discussion” with Jordan Spieth after the American declared the PGA Tour no longer needed to strike a deal with the Saudis.
Spieth’s comments in the wake of a £2.4 billion investment in the Tour by a US consortium led by the owners of Liverpool disappointed McIlroy so much that he quit a group chat featuring the circuit’s best players.
Once LIV’s biggest critic, McIlroy, who three months ago resigned from the Tour’s policy board after “feeling like I was just banging my head against the wall” has recently been adamant that without the £700 billion Public Investment Fund as a partner, there will be no unity in the professional male game.
And Spieth’s flippant dismissal clearly worried the world No 2 in this regard. “The short answer is we don’t have to [bring them on board],” Spieth said, when asked about the necessity to strike peace with PIF.
That does not sit well with McIlroy, as he explained to Sports Illustrated. “Having PIF as your partner as opposed to not having them as your partner, I don’t think is an option for the game of golf,” McIlroy said. “I think they’re committed to investing in golf and in the wider world of sport and if you can get them to invest their money the right way to unify the game of golf.”
Negotiations are ongoing between the Tour and PIF, although after last Tuesday’s announcement of the partnership with the Strategic Sports Group, the ball is plainly in the Saudis’ court.
“If I were PIF hearing that, it wouldn’t have made me too happy”
Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of PIF, has assured the LIV golfers the breakaway league will continue and could well decide to abandon the “framework agreement” signed alongside the Tour and the DP World Tour last summer.
Having spent more than £500 million in the last month on new captures – including Ryder Cup heroes Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton – Al-Rumayyan has signalled his intention to keep strengthening the LIV roster and if he does choose to keep going it alone, the sport will obviously remain fractured.
McIlroy believes that Spieth’s statements risk forcing Al-Rumayyan’s hand. “I talked to him [Spieth] about his comments, and we had a pretty frank discussion,” McIlroy said. “My thing was if I’m the original investor that thought that they were going to get this deal done back in July, and I’m hearing a board member say that, you know, we don’t really need them, now, how are they going to think about that, what are they gonna feel about that?
“They are still sitting out there with hundreds of billions of dollars, if not trillions, that they’re gonna pour it into sport, and I know what Jordan was saying… but if I were PIF and I was hearing that, the day after doing this SSG deal, it wouldn’t have made me too happy.”