UP355 How ESG impacts the sports business

Unofficial Partner Podcast

How will the ESG agenda impact sport?
ESG is short for Environmental, Social and Governance, and is a set of standards measuring business's impact on society, the environment, and how transparent and accountable it is; an attempt to capture all the non-financial risks and opportunities inherent in a company's day to day activities.
It relates to sport in a number of very significant ways.
For example, some major corporations are using ESG as a framework with which to shape their sport sponsorship spend. Is the sports team or event rights holder transparent in its governance and supply chain practices? Is its workforce and executive suitably diverse? And what is the impact of its events on the climate?
But the ESG movement has also proven controversial.
Elon Musk called it 'the devil' and dismissed it as 'woke', after tobacco companies scored higher in sustainability indexes than Tesla: 'How could cigarettes, which kill over eight million a year, be deemed a more ethical investment than electric cars?' wrote Musk, accusing ESG of creating unintended consequences and creating a misleading rule book that's open to being gamed by unscrupulous business owners.
To help us unpick where sport plays in the ESG debate, we're joined by Nick Keller, the CEO and founder of Benchmark, and the global foundation Beyond Sport, which has been backed by global leaders including Richard Branson, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
00:00 Introduction and Benchmark Overview
02:50 The Role of Agencies in Sports
06:55 The Importance of ESG in Sports
15:51 The Challenges of ESG Investing
22:53 The Future of Sponsorship in Sports
32:18 Understanding the Supply Chain in Sports
33:09 The Role of Sustainability
33:26 The Impact of AI on Sports
33:37 The Ethics of Sports Sponsorship
34:13 The Role of Brands in Sports
39:14 The Power of Athlete Activism
39:59 The Future of Sports Sponsorship
44:12 The Challenges of Major Sports Events
51:56 The Role of Sustainability in Major Sports Events
57:51 The Impact of Cancer on Personal Life

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