News & Results
Sport BOP celebrates sustainability milestone and looks to the future
At Sport Bay of Plenty we have first-hand awareness of our region’s reputation as New Zealand’s playground. Whether it be Mount Maunganui’s maunga, the redwoods of Whakarewarewa or Ōhope’s beautiful beach, our natural environment provides those of us that thrive in an active lifestyle ample opportunity and scope to do so.
Which is why, as our rohe’s Regional Sport Trust, we have a duty to ensure we are doing all we can to protect it - so that we, and future generations, can continue to compete, move and play in our unique and diverse outdoor environment.
Therefore, in 2022, Sport BOP made an ambitious commitment to reduce our carbon emissions by 25% by 2035, against 2021 levels.
Incredibly, we have already achieved our target, reducing our emissions from 113.48 tonnes CO2e to 84 tonnes CO2e – a decrease of 26%.
As part of our mahi, employees are required to travel across the Bay of Plenty region. Consequently, it was no surprise to learn that company cars (80%) and staff commuting (11%) contributed most to our carbon footprint.
This achievement was largely due to a switch to hybrid vehicles for our staff fleet, a process that is still ongoing which can only continue to reduce our emissions profile going forward.
New Zealand declared a climate emergency in December 2020 and with it came a nationwide commitment toward urgent action in reducing emissions, an edict Sport BOP has followed.
This belief is almost universal across our company, with 92% of our staff believing sustainability should be a key consideration for our work. When asked what sustainability means to them, staff reported reducing the impact on the environment, thinking about future generations and respect and care for communities as key indicators.
One of our key funders, BayTrust, also played a pivotal role in identifying sustainability as an area where we wanted to make an impact.
BayTrust is advocating for funded organisations to reduce carbon emission and support sustainability outcomes. They connected us with a Sustainability Advisor who helped us measure our carbon emissions and set reductions targets.
The potential impact of climate change has been keenly felt in Aoteaora this year. Cyclone Gabrielle wreaked havoc on our neighbours in Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti in February while Auckland, our nation’s biggest city, was brought to a shuddering halt by flooding on Auckland Anniversary weekend.
In the wake of both, an impact on active lifestyles was apparent. In Tairāwhiti, many clubs found themselves with insufficient insurance to cover such unprecedented damage. In Auckland, the main Domain was left waterlogged along with several sites across the city, both indoor and outdoor.
But the collective effort and togetherness that sport harbours was also on show. Clubs rallied round in impacted areas, donating replacement gear from Wellington, offering clean-up assistance in Napier or simply a shoulder to lean on in remoter communities.
Making the relevant and necessary shifts to ensure our sector remains robust in the wake of climate change is now a vital piece of work for Sport BOP. We are extremely proud at reaching our emissions target with over a decade to spare but this success presents a challenge – how do we continue to make an impact from here?
Understanding the issues and problems that were unearthed by this year’s freak weather events will help us identify how we can best futureproof our support in line with ongoing shifts in climate activity. We will endeavour to do so whilst also aiming to remain a beacon of sustainability for our region and the nation.
Perhaps the comments of my outgoing counterpart at Sport Hawke’s Bay, Mark Aspden, said it best when recently talking about the impact of the cyclone on his rohe and the importance of play, active recreation and sport in the wake of such turmoil.
“Sport and recreation always survives. It survives through wars. It survives through natural disasters. I think there's an innate desire to want to be out there playing, competing, having fun. And so, community does absolutely rally round.”
Ngā mihi,
Heidi Lichtwark – Sport Bay of Plenty chief executive
