SIGA is a purpose-led organization that aims to eradicate unethical and illicit activity to safeguard sports values and ensure its positive impact to all citizens. SIGA’s work is beating the drum for continuous improvement in sports – something that is undoubtedly important for an industry that has lacked any robust business governance standards in the past.
SIGA’s vision is one that very much echoes my own personal values so, on International Women’s Day, I was particularly excited to be invited to participate at SIGA’s (the Sport Integrity Global Alliance) Summit on Female Leadership In Sport.
In an inspiring opening address, SIGA’s Global CEO, , shared his clarion call to the industry to address entrenched gender imbalance: “Sport is meant to be this school of values, this catalyst for human development and economic growth. But if sport wants to inspire, it must lead by example. How can sport fulfill its mission to the full if we look at the highest executive boardrooms of international federations and we see that female leadership is reduced to an insignificant 17.8%. Is this the best that we can do?”.
Throughout the 2-day event we heard from some incredible women who have achieved some of the highest accolades in their respective sports and positions in business, learning about the challenges they overcame on their journey and how the next generation of sports industry leaders need to embrace elements like sustainability, inclusivity, and social responsibility
The session I moderated, titled ‘Sustain the Game’, was focused on how female leaders are helping the sports industry tackle some of the critical social and environmental impacts from their sports, and highlighting some of the major successes they have achieved. Whilst the focus was very much on sustainability in terms of environmental footprint, the session also touched on themes like diversity, equity and inclusion.
The one point that all of our panelists spoke of and agreed on, was the culture of their senior leadership and its attitude towards embracing the benefits of positive change, which was refreshing to hear, as many other industry sectors are still struggling in this space.
I was genuinely impressed by the examples of positive impact the panelists have had within their respective organizations, from Sam Goghill – Vice President of Stadium Operations for the Miami Dolphins and Hardrock Stadium, where “sustainability is a team game” where from April 2019 to the super bowl in 2020, Sam and her colleagues were able to eliminate 99.4% of single use plastics, removing 2.7 million pieces of single use plastic. Sam made a great point about younger generations driving positive change, “our organization now has a lot of young people. It’s been a highlight of my six years at the Miami Dolphins to see that cultural shift as people join us who really care about sustainability”.
We also heard from Emily Hofer – Chief People Officer and Head of Social Impact & Sustainability at The World Surf League, who has also achieved some significant wins over the past few years. An achievement led by Emily and the World Surf League was to petition the United Nations for the protection of 30% of the world’s oceans, with the support of over 150 countries and approximately 40 million people from around the world. She made a great point about the need for transparency when it comes to marketing ethical pillars like sustainability or diversity. “I think it’s not only the right thing, it’s essential for business survival. And I think that younger consumers expect it. They want an authentic, high integrity approach to the mission and the purpose work, and they can tell the difference if you’re only doing it as a tick-boxing marketing initiative”.
Next, we heard from Christine Burke – Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships & Runner Products at New York Road Runners, who has been focusing on minimizing the waste impact of their events on the roads of New York since 2012. Examples of the great work that Christine has led to the collection of discarded clothing at the start line, and in 2019 this surpassed 1 million pounds in weight of clothing, which is now part of a circular economy for future events. Christine and her colleagues also tackled the waste streams caused by 23 water stations, generating up to 1 million cups. Now, the design of these cups is such that they can all be composted post-event. She added “I think that the biggest challenge is having that intentionality right from the start. Things like sustainability and diversity being embedded from the beginning, rather than trying to retrofit it”. Using standards – like ISO 20121 in Sustainable Events Management, for example – is a means of ensuring those values and processes are on the agenda from early on in an organization’s sustainability journey.
We then heard from Cindy Kamradt – Executive Director, Stadium Planning & Special Projects at the New York Yankees, who has worked on a number of transitional programs to embed sustainability into the fabric of the stadium operations. The New York Yankees are the first sports organization to install the most efficient LED lighting in the world, which are 40% more efficient and 50% brighter than previous field lighting. Cindy shared additional examples of sustainability programs from the Yankees, which included the introduction of compostable cutlery and food-service packaging, instead of non-compostable petroleum-based plastics. Through the overall efforts of fans and Stadium staff, approximately 85 percent of the Stadium's total trash is diverted away from landfills, making Yankee Stadium one of the most successful recycling venues in all of sports. She shared the difficulty of navigating sustainability and social best practice when you have large, complex supply chains: “It’s one of our greatest challenges. We have 150 different contractors and vendors. On the one side, we have our event supply chain, but on the other we have engineering or construction firms that are not focussed on sustainability at all. We put it into our master services agreement and our rules and regulations. But it’s a constant struggle”.
As the moderator for our “sustain the game” panel discussion, I can say that I leave this summit having heard a lot about embedding best practice, and how the passion, experience and energy that Sam, Emily, Christine and Cindy is truly inspirational, and sustainability is a key focus for them and their colleagues throughout their organizations, from the senior leadership teams to their frontline operational colleagues.
My feeling is that there are a lot that other industry sectors could learn from these female sustainability leaders, and how their organizations are benefiting from embracing an inclusive and diverse leadership structure. We see examples every week of organizations that have been called out for greenwashing, making false claims around their sustainability achievements and goals, and driving the importance for organizations to have the independently validated and verified objective evidence of good business governance.
I’m extremely proud to work for an organization that broadens the scope of international standards and best practice guidance on areas like improving diversity & inclusion, ensuring sustainable and transparent supply chains, and increasing social value. Most recently, we shared our Prioritizing People Model which provides organizations with a best practice framework to embed employee wellbeing and a culture of care. This is why SIGA partnered with BSI in 2019 to develop its SIRVS ratings system which measures how fit-for-purpose sport governance actually is.
