This blog post is a bit of a departure from the normal things I usually speak about here, but it’s something I’m just as passionate about: The environment.

After a season of coaching youth basketball, I took a look at what the impact of my coaching was on the environment and what I saw raised quite a big issue that I believe needs to be conquered. As you read this, please bear in mind that the popularity of basketball in England is soaring and more players and teams are getting involved.

Reflecting On My Own Impact

After the season 2022-23 basketball season finished, I reflected on how much travel had taken place to get me to and from training sessions and games, and wondered what kind of environmental impact this had and what I could do about it.

I calculated my carbon footprint from travelling to and from training sessions each week and learned that it would take the annual workload of 6 trees to offset the carbon produced by this. This doesn’t include travel to games or extra sessions that I ran during the season.

This was just for me, if I were to add in travel to home and away games, then the rest of the players/parents/staff on the team/refs, and then multiply by another 17 teams in the club I was coaching for at the time, that carbon footprint, and the number of trees needed to offset it starts to look much bigger!

Something else I regularly noticed on game days at our home court venue is that the bins would be regularly full of single use plastic bottles that had been thrown away.

Recognising The Impact Of Sports On The Individual and On The Environment

I would not be the person I am today without basketball. It changed my life by improving my confidence, helping me to develop my work ethic, teaching me how to set goals and work towards them, how to communicate and be part of a team, and how to compete. These are all life skills that have infiltrated all areas of my life throughout all of my life.

As a result, I believe the work that is done with young people in sports is very important. It helps the players we work with through our coaching to develop life skills that will transcend well beyond the court into all areas of their lives.

However, it’s very clear that the work we do and the involvement of all who participate has a very real impact on the environment. If we’re going to do all this good work with the people we coach, it makes sense to do what we can to offset/reduce our environmental impact so that those people who benefit from our work continue to have a healthy, green world to grow up in, with all the biodiversity that we have also been fortunate to grow up with.

Making Changes To Offset Impact

Following the realisation of how much carbon my travel to training was producing, I contacted the Woodland Trust to find out the best way I could offset it. I discussed donating to the carbon fund, or taking out a Woodland Trust Membership, and went with the latter.

Then, throughout the following 2023-24 season, each time my team won a game I donated to plant a tree via the National Trust to commemorate the win. This was something I communicated about clearly with the players, and it was fantastic to see how enthusiastic they were about it. After we won games they would openly ask me if I’d planted the tree yet! I wanted to help the young players to understand the importance of personal responsibility in taking care of the environment and using the power of sports/basketball to do good in the world.

Opportunity For Positive Change

When I first started looking into this, neither Super League Basketball, Basketball England, or any of their top flight teams in their leagues had sustainability policies on their websites that I could find.

However, Super League Basketball have recently announced a partnership with Biffa, as their official sustainability partner-which is a great step in the right direction, and in January 2024, Bristol flyers posted an article on their website stating that Bristol Sport, which included the Flyers basketball team had partnered with Hydrock to reduce emissions and mitigate their impact on the environment, which is fantastic news!

Football seems to be much more ahead of the curve in this area though, it’s not hard to find topflight organisations and clubs that have ambitious sustainability policies in place, and they are doing a lot of good work with it.

With environmental action so far being quite limited on the basketball scene, we have an opportunity create positive change in this area and help safeguard and preserve the future of our environment for all the people who enjoy the sport’s activities.

It’s not just down to the clubs or governing bodies to take action. We all have responsibility as individuals for our own impact, and there are things we can all do to safeguard the environment while we continue to enjoy basketball and all of the benefits it has.

Sustainability Ideas For Basketball Clubs

I have done some initial brainstorming and have come up a few ideas around things that basketball clubs can do to reduce their environmental impact. Some will cost money, others won’t. The reality is that change will take time, but if everyone can set some targets and take small steps in the right direction, we can make a positive difference. Here are some initial ideas:

-Clubs could write a sustainability policy/plan and publish it on their website. They may wish to allocate a sustainability officer to ensure that the plan is adhered to and followed up, and report back to their club members and fans on positive steps taken.

-Encourage junior players to become “environment champions” for the club. If they report to the club that they’ve done something to offset their own environmental impact or something positive to support the environment such as picking litter in their community, they could be presented with an Environment Champion Certificate. If the club has senior teams, this could be done at one of the senior team games in front of the home crowd!

-Give an award to the team within the club at the end of the season who has done the most amount of lift sharing to get to games.

-Clubs could become an affiliate members of BASIS-The British Association for Sustainable Sport. Affiliate membership is free to amateur teams and provides access to resources to help clubs become more sustainable.

-Clubs could take out their own Woodland Trust, or other tree planting organisation membership and display the logo at senior team home games with words about their commitment to reducing carbon impact etc.

-Donate an amount from club merch sales to tree planting initiatives to help offset the carbon of all the travel they do. This could be to the Woodland’s Trust Carbon Fund, or to the National Trust’s tree planting scheme.

-Add to club merch offerings reusable branded metal bottles to help cut down on single use plastics from players, while also raising funds for the club.

-Add products to club merch offerings which are specifically aimed at raising funds for tree planting, with tree planting targets in mind. Above water bottle for example, or specific warm up t-shits for games. These items could have the club’s sustainability initiative logo on them to spread awareness of what they are doing.

-Provide education to parents and players on sports drinks-situations where they are and aren’t needed, and how to make your own sports drinks at home. This would help to reduce single use plastic bottle waste.

-Install plastic bottle recycling facilities/collections at home game venues.

-Clubs could get involved with tree planting at schools that their junior players attend. Tree Planting packs are free from the Woodland Trust. This could be a community building activity for the clubs too and would emphasise their intentions to be greener and support the futures of the players who train and compete in the local area as well as enhancing the community around them.

I’m sure there are many other ideas which may be more appropriate for each club/team’s circumstances. But, I hope this initial brainstorm has generated some ideas and thoughts around what can be done.

Making Changes, Managing Impact

I hope that everyone who participates in basketball at any level will recognise the need for the sport to acknowledge its role in managing the very real impact that sports participation has on climate change and the environment, then take positive steps to offset this impact for the benefit of all the people who participate in the game.

When faced with change, it can often feel overwhelming, but if all of the basketball clubs in the country made one small positive change per season, imagine where we could be in 5-10 seasons time and how much positive contribution the sport of basketball could be making to taking care of the environment and sustainability, allowing all of the participants to have a healthy world to take the skills they are developing into.

Lastly, I wanted to share that I have tried to speak to Basketball England about this and ask if they could encourage clubs to take action on these important sustainability issues and basketball’s role in these environmental issues. I’ve tried to speak to them about this on three occasions by a mixture of email and phone call and unfortunately, I’ve had no response.

It's clear that it’s the people on the ground who are going to need to take action if the basketball community is going to make a meaningful contribution to tacking climate change and environmental issues that are contributed to by sports participation, so I hope this has inspired you, and if it has I really hope you’ll get in touch with me to let me know!

Reflecting On My Own Impact

Recognising The Impact Of Sports On The Individual and On The Environment

Making Changes To Offset Impact

Opportunity For Positive Change

Sustainability Ideas For Basketball Clubs

Making Changes, Managing Impact

Useful Links

BASIS

Tree Planting