The ‘Bad Sport’ Green & Sportswash Awards 2022
Sport can be beautiful, healthy, uplifting - great to watch and take part in. But sports and athletes need a good climate and environment to flourish. Global heating is taking that away from us. And, worse still, many major polluters use sport as a billboard to promote themselves. We think they are bad sports and want to call them out in the first ever ‘Bad Sport’ Green & Sportswash Awards, a joint initiative of the Badvertising campaign and the Rapid Transition Alliance through its Cool Down - sport for climate action network.
To nominate, use the Entry Form for the Awards, which allows you to upload images, and can be found here.
Deadline for entries: Sunday, 18th September, 2022
For the Bad Sport Awards: Greenwash is when someone makes environmental claims that don’t add up. Sportswash is when major polluters exploit sport to improve their image and reputation.
Send us the worst examples of greenwash and sportswash in sport, from anywhere in the world, and our expert judging panel will study them for the inaugural Bad Sport Awards. The most outrageous cases will be called-out (sorry, awarded) in a special live ceremony at the tail-end of September. The Entry Form for the Bad Sport Awards is here.
BACKGROUND
As public concern and awareness around climate change grows, sports clubs around the world are keen to be a part of the conversation. There are different ways of doing this. Sports clubs can lead from the front, pioneer sustainability at every level of the club and bring their loyal fans along for the ride. But there is also the danger that they can pay only lip service to climate and sustainability, through glitzy and misleading marketing, ill-thought out campaigns and unsubstantiated green claims. They can also let their clubs and sport be used by major polluters to launder their reputation. This is greenwashing and sportswashing - and this is what the Bad Sport Awards are calling out.
But to do this, we need you. As people that are working in the sporting world, who are passionate about engaging clubs, players and fans on climate change, you will have seen many examples of greenwash and sportswash. We would like you to send to us the most thoughtless, egregious, cringe making or out-right shameless examples you have come across. These mishaps can be from anywhere in the world and from any sport. If successful, we hope the Bad Sport Greenwash & Sportswash Awards will bring an end to this practice in sport.
To give a clue about the kind of thing we mean - it’s things like these examples:
Manchester City’s infamous initiative to encourage fans to reuse plastic bottles in exchange for…air miles. This is an ill-thought-out example of greenwash.
The Qatar Airways hoardings at UEFA Mens Euros 2020 inviting spectators to “Fly Greener”. This is a heinous example of greenwash.
The 2021 Australian Open saw high-carbon sponsorships all around the court-side hoardings, including car maker Kia, airline Emirates and oil and gas giant Santos. This is a shocking example of sportswash.
The Bad Sport awards will be an opportunity to call-out greenwashing and sportswashing in sport, sending the message loud and clear that it is not okay to use the language and imagery of sustainability without backing it up with real, concrete and immediate action to reduce sports’ environmental impact. By gathering examples of greenwash and sportswash we can better understand the methods, techniques and strategies used to mislead fans, clubs and the wider public on climate issues. We hope it will also help turn the tide of misinformation.
JUDGES
Our judging panel employs expertise ranging from the worlds of sport, to climate science and the creative industries including:
Etienne Stott MBE - Olympic gold medallist, London 2012
Katie Cross - Pledgeball
Prof Bill McGuire - author Hothouse Earth
Anna Jonsson - New Weather Sweden
Webster Wickham - creative director at BWA DESIGN LLP