The Power of Sports and Entertainment to Catalyze Climate Action
Alison Tickell on how culture and sports can champion change
by Ambika Aggarwal
“Culture and sports are hugely important economically and creatively, but they are seen as drivers of an economy, rather than drivers for good.”
The global sports sector contributes the same level of emissions as a medium-sized country. The carbon footprint created by transportation to and from events, the construction of sporting venues, and the supply chains of sports-related equipment all affect the climate. According to FIFA, the 2022 Qatar World Cup released 3.6 million tons of carbon.
Yet throughout history, sports have also been a space for social change and community building. In fact, the Women’s World Cup in 2023 saw 44 players launch football’s biggest athlete-led climate campaign. But entertainment and sports industries are often not perceived as drivers of social good, instead seen as merely a money-making venture.
Ashoka Fellow Alison Tickell believes that entertainment industries can play a crucial role in combating climate change. Her organization, Julie’s Bicycle helps organizations across a multi-billion-dollar culture industry — visual and performing arts, music, and museums — tackle the climate, nature, and justice crises by taking practical action to reduce their emissions and catalyze programs that help to inspire deeper transformation.
She’s not only working to decrease the environmental footprint of these industries — she also believes that these sectors have the power to inspire others to become more climate friendly. This is due to the huge effect entertainment has on what people care about, how they live and experience the world, along with its incredible reach, which enables it to raise awareness about global warming. In particular, sports hold a powerful position within the industry — billions of individuals are involved either as spectators, players, or facilitators.
We sat down with Tickell to hear how she’s transforming arts and culture industries into catalysts for positive change and her advice on how sports and other entertainment organizations can do the same.
Q: How do you describe what you do to a general audience?
Alison: Well, I try not to. [laughter]
Julie’s Bicycle (JB) is dedicated to working with the culture and arts community to address the climate and ecological crisis, as well as use culture’s amplified voice and its capacity to gather communities and networks around it to inspire change.
I usually also talk about the fact that the climate crisis has been caused overwhelmingly by industrialization fueled by fossil fuels. Colonialism and its ongoing consequences as an ideology have done irreparable damage. Unpacking the values and assumptions that drive so much of contemporary life, and making wise choices about what matters is an urgent task for us all. Everything is, indeed, connected, so the climate crisis is also the biodiversity crisis, which is also the justice crisis, and so on.
Together they reveal how we value one another and this gorgeous place we briefly inhabit. These are deep and profoundly meaningful cultural values and behaviors. It’s time to recognize that the climate crisis is a cultural crisis and thus climate solutions are rooted in culture. This feels obvious to me. But it clearly isn’t, otherwise, perhaps we wouldn’t be facing this perilous moment. But this also gives us an incredible opportunity to live with care, attention, love. That is why it is so important to engage the entertainment industry.
Culture and sports are hugely important economically and creatively, but they are seen as drivers of an economy, rather than drivers of good, and that is what we are trying to change.
Q: How would you describe the primary challenges in culture that you are trying to overcome?
Alison: Simply, we have to change what we do, and that means changing how we work. It isn’t enough to talk about it and do nothing, or to do something and not talk about it. It needs a full response — all of it. That can feel daunting before you start. And we have to do it together, and at speed. It’s empowering to know that every time we make a decision — a planning decision, or a performance decision, or a travel decision — we are making choices on behalf of Mother Earth. We have to imagine what they would say.
Q: Your target population is the cultural industry. What are the different voices and populations within that sector that you have to translate to?
Alison: We are many. JB was founded by people from the music industry, and even that is very diverse, for example, the live sector and the recording and publishing sector are still quite distinct (though consolidation is also happening).
We expanded to theater, visual arts, museums, galleries, and performing arts fairly quickly because, in spite of the differences across the sector, there is still much they have in common. Each subsector has its own distinct culture and activities — venues, productions, tours for example — which have different environmental impacts and opportunities for change, but there is a lot we share. This is really clear when activities are categorized according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol scopes, 1, 2 and 3. Buildings, travel, transportation, materials, and so on.
Seeing common problems and challenges across the entertainment and creative sectors helps to scale and accelerate overall action. We also share the super-power of communication, whether artists speaking out, or big events and festivals demonstrating what matters by committing to net zero. There is a lot of work to do, but many companies are deeply engaged with this and creative responses to the climate challenge are flourishing, I see it everywhere. It tells me that a cultural shift is well underway, and awareness about climate, biodiversity, and who is most impacted and why, is growing exponentially. Culture and sports — entertainment — have a huge potential to champion this conversation.
Q: As you think about the next 1–3 years, what strategies will you be focused on to expand the impact of your work?
Alison: This is a really good question. Expanding our work is not an end in itself. However, the work expanding — creative climate action becoming relevant and normalized, adapted to different places and communities, through culture and entertainment — is what needs to happen. That means helping to build and strengthen the movement and supporting good people doing this work. The Creative Climate Leadership program, which brings together cultural pioneers to share, and scale justice-led leadership centered on care and reciprocity, is a priority and is in a lot of demand too — as is the alumni network. They are doing really important work, quite literally re-making culture. The deep collaborations CCL is based on have been truly transformative for me and I am certain there are many people who could develop something similar, and wonderful, in sports.
We will also double down on policy because both climate and cultural policy are not speaking to one another. They need to for the full potential of entertainment and culture to be realized.
Q: What would you recommend a local sport club or local venue can do to take the first step towards putting that policy in place?
Alison: Change needs people to want it. And overwhelmingly they do; I can’t remember the last time I heard someone saying they didn’t want to fix the environmental challenges we face. But often commitments and actions go unnoticed. The person who turns out the lights, or waters the plants, might be the person who is passionate about climate change and wants to do more but hasn’t been noticed.
Talking to the community, staff, teams, parents, and friends, finding out what makes them happy, what brings them joy, and what they care about, and together coming up with responses is not just a good approach to change, it is also going to have the biggest impact.
For the big players — the stadiums, arenas, and so on — there is a bigger responsibility to take action and commit to solutions. This can be a very creative commitment that goes far beyond net zero. And obviously using the huge platforms they have to communicate values and commitments wisely.
Q: Finally, what is the opportunity that you see for partnerships between sports and the culture sector to drive this kind of mindset shift?
Alison: They’ve got so much in common. They share activities, spaces, often values and audiences. There are activities they could do together, sharing knowledge and ideas and celebrating achievements. But it is the passion, euphoria, huge gatherings, and big names that make them so similar — and unique too.
The power to convene, across space and time, social and cultural differences, local and global, is a gift — and a responsibility.
People experience joy, community, gathering, care, identity with sports and culture. There’s nothing quite like them. They can learn a lot from one another and, together, are the most influential industries on the planet.
This article is part of our “Sport for Changemaking” series — a collection of articles that examine how Ashoka Fellows around the world are utilizing sports to create impact and mobilize change. The series showcases the potential of sports as a tool for social transformation and provide insights into strategies, impact, challenges, and lessons learned. Sign up for our newsletter and stay up to date with Ashoka’s Sport for Changemaking initiative.
