Fiona Morgan: ‘sport’s First Podium For The Planet’
SailGP is the world’s first climate positive sport and entertainment property. Committed to a greener future, it aims to celebrate individuals and organisations from across the globe that are actively contributing to a more sustainable future through its sporting profile and practices.
We caught up with the competition’s Director of Purpose and Impact, Fiona Morgan, to find out how partners are helping to push the sport’s sustainability agenda…
Hi Fiona, to kick us off, tell us a bit about yourself and your role at SailGP.
I truly believe sport has an unrivalled power to drive change and I’m energised to be involved in an exciting new phase for our sector. I’ve worked in sport for many years across all elements, ranging from agency, talent, commercial and brand – shaping social and environmental impact strategies and promoting gender equity.
Before SailGP, I worked for Sky’s corporate and social purpose team, The Bigger Picture, and led the Sky Ocean Rescue consumer campaign. Then in 2020, I came onboard at SailGP as Global Director of Purpose and Impact to help set-up the division and be part of one of the most exciting new properties in sport, one with purpose and an amazing product. As the first climate positive sport, our mission is to help make sustainability and inclusivity essential to the fabric of sport and we want to lead the way and inspire others.
I also believe it’s really important to give back. I’m an Ambassador for Meaningful Business, on the Social Impact Committee for the British Paralympic Association and a proud Non-Executive Director for the Manchester Originals team in the new format Hundred cricket tournament. I’m also an advisory board member at 17 Sport, a judge for the Laureus Sport for Good Index and a founding member of Sports Pro Media NEW ERA programme, which recgonises, supports and advocates for gender equality and representation within the international sports industry.
To people that are not familiar with SailGP, can you tell us a bit about the sport and its growth?
SailGP is the most exciting racing on water featuring sailing’s best athletes racing in identical hydrofoiling F50 catamarans, flying at speeds approaching 100 km/h. It’s nation vs nation battling in short intense races at iconic venues across the globe, from Copenhagen to Sydney, Saint-Tropez to Singapore. All building to the grand final in San Francisco, with the biggest purse in sailing. We race for a better future, championing a world powered by nature.
Our ambition is to be the world’s most sustainable and purpose-driven global sports and entertainment platform, and we are passionate advocates for the power of our sport for good and the power of nature to change the world. I am proud of what we have achieved in a short period of time and how we have embedded purpose and a new way of operating as a sport. We have set ourselves a 55% carbon reduction target, based on science and for our league on water and on shore to be fully powered by nature by 2025.
Collaboration and commitment are key to achieving all of this. That’s one of the reasons why we redefined performance and created the Impact League. Sport’s first podium for the planet, the Impact League runs alongside the Season Championship and tracks the positive actions our teams make to reduce their overall carbon footprint, operate more sustainably, and accelerate inclusivity in sailing. The winner of the Impact League receives prize money at each event and end of season for their purpose partners.
Through the innovative ideas and solutions implemented by our teams our hope is to scale these initiatives wider than the competition itself. The impact of what we do should extend beyond the teams, or a one-off event. In the same way, sustainable action should become essential to the fabric of sport. And that’s not just for us, we want other sports organisations to adopt a similar framework to the Impact League and change the way they operate. Imagine the impact an equivalent Olympics, Euros or motorsport league could have, when you consider their global audience and influence. If sport acts differently, we know fans and partners will follow.
“Imagine the impact an equivalent Olympics, Euros or motorsport league could have, when you consider their global audience and influence.”
FIONA MORGAN, SAILGP
SailGP has a partnership with Aggreko. Can you tell us about how you’re working together to minimise your emissions?
We have a fantastic commercial partnership with Aggreko – the world-leading provider of mobile modular power, who supply us with temporary clean power in our race villages and help deliver cleaner energy systems across all SailGP events around the globe. They are a big player in our ambition to be 100 percent powered by clean energy by 2025.
We just released our first ever Purpose & Impact Report last week, which showcases the environmental and social successes SailGP has faced in its second season.
Highlighted within the report, SailGP was able to reduce total emissions from temporary power provisions by 56 percent through our partnership with Aggreko.
Most recently at the Great Britain Sail Grand Prix in Plymouth in July, Aggreko implemented the largest solar array we’ve ever used and had bio-methanol as an energy source at a live event within the UK for the first time in history. This enabled the entire race village to be 100 percent powered by clean energy.
You can see the innovative work we’ve done with Aggreko at the Great Britain Sail Grand Prix by watching the video below…
Are there any other commercial partnerships SailGP has in place that are having a significant impact in the fight against climate change?
We also work with global logistics company Kuehne+Nagel to set a new standard for major event logistics, minimising the carbon footprint of league’s transports and creating more efficient transport routes.
By leveraging fossil fuel alternatives in both land and sea transport, SailGP reduced emissions on the European leg of the Championship in Season 2 by 90 percent. The partnership also enabled us to avoid approximately 340 tonnes of CO²e on the shipping from Cádiz to Sydney and onto San Francisco.
Oracle is another partner who has had a significant impact on reducing the need for our broadcast team to travel to each event, reducing flight emissions and accommodation. By operating a remote broadcast studio in the UK and utilizing the Oracle Cloud, the SailGP broadcast team was able to reduce carbon emission relating to travel by 46 percent in Season 2.
Collaboration is key to delivering our goals so it’s partnerships like these that are really helping us in our ambition to be the world’s most purpose-driven and sustainable global sports platform.
Where do you see SailGP as sport going next? Can it continue to grow and what plans are in place to help make this happen?
For us it’s about doing things differently, being brave and operating innovatively to make our sport better and be better for the planet. We want to continue to expand our partnerships with organisations who share the same values as us and meet our climate goals to drive more change.
We’ve seen the league grow exponentially, with our broadcast figures increasing by 44 percent in Season 2 and expected to increase by 68 percent in Season 2 to more than 110 million viewers. The league is also expanding from 11 events in Season 3 to 14 events in Season 4. With this increase comes a challenge to continue minimising our footprint while our business expands, but it also presents a great opportunity to engage with a wider fanbase to promote sustainability, diversity, and inclusion, and have a real impact on the places we visit.
Zooming out and looking at sport in general, do you think it is doing enough regarding environmental issues?
In the past few years, we’ve seen more sports take responsibility and introduce sustainability practices. I’m sure people have seen the Sports Positive Leagues, the ranking system by the yearly Sport Positive Summit that gives top football leagues sustainability scores and the first ever Net Zero football match by Sky or the Forest Green Rovers- the greenest football team in the world.
Some sports have always had an environmentally friendly focus, mostly water sports, and it’s great to see new clean energy sports like the eSkootr Championships launched this year. There are some sports doing some great things, but I think as a whole, we can do more and be better at working together, collaborating to solve problems as there is no competition in sustainable action.
A big objective for the Purpose & Impact Report we’ve published is to help inspire other sports and businesses to take action when it comes to protecting our planet. We know there are a lot of challenges, so not only does the report keep us accountable moving forward but it enables us to share key learnings with the wider industry.
Images: SailGP
