The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) website has announced on Wednesday that the Wallabies will “go green” for their World Cup campaign in New Zealand. What does this mean? It means they will try to offset their entire carbon footprint for the trip.
The campaign is officially called ‘Qantas Wallabies Go Green’, and is in partnership with long term naming rights partners Qantas and Lexus, as well as the Carbon Offset Program. Qantas will offset the flights to and from NZ, Lexus will offset all ground transportation, and the Carbon Trade Exchange will offset any other footprints that may appear. All offsets will be compliant with the Australian National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS). The ARU claims the Wallabies are the first Rugby World Cup team attempting to offset their campaign. ARU Managing Director and CEO John O’Neill says he hopes other teams will follow suit.
Perhaps they can make Rugby Union the first carbon-neutral sport on the planet.
Which raises the question: Just how big is sporting industry’s carbon footprint? News website France24.com worked out a few key figures to give an idea of just how energy hungry sporting is:
· The Soccer World Cup in South Africa produced 2.5 million tons of C02.
· 15 million litres of water are used every year to produce artificial snow on the ski fields of France alone.
· An estimated 880 tons of C02 was emitted by the racers in the 2010 Dakar Rally. This does not take into account assistance cars or helicopters.
· A 40 hectare golf course requires up to 127,000m3 of water to keep its lawns healthy.
Efforts are being made by some sporting bodies to reduce their code’s carbon emissions. The 2012 London Olympics have created 45 hectares of wildlife habitat within Olympic Park to safeguard the wildlife against construction of the park (and to provide a picturesque setting for the games), and all of the food packaging at the games will be biodegradable. It was originally planned that 20% of the power generated for the games would come from renewable sources, but that has since dropped to 9%.
Sport is a big part of society, but its carbon footprint can’t be ignored forever. We will soon see all sporting codes join in as the Wallabies have, cutting down or offsetting carbon emissions wherever possible. It is just another aspect of our life that we are going to have to bring into the environmentally-conscious 21st century.
