Self-confessed geek, Katie Carr is embracing the significant challenge of leading the measurement and strategic planning of the sport’s environmental sustainability work. She lays out the challenge in hand.
All around the globe, sport is facing challenges directly attributable to the climate emergency, and these challenges are closer than many of us may think – Paris Olympics athletes at risk from heatwave. So, when the opportunity arose to play a leading role in how British Racing responds to environmental challenges I jumped at the chance.
Strategic importance recognised
Environmental sustainability has been identified as a key pillar of racing’s cross-industry strategy, and as a result The Racing Foundation have funded my role for an initial 12-month period during which I will be based out of the BHA. The reason why we need to take a coordinated approach is three-fold: there is a commercial imperative; a legal and regulatory imperative; and a moral imperative. Racing is synonymous with our natural environment, and not only does our sport have a big impact on its environment, but the environment has a big impact on our sport. We have seen recently the effects of prolonged periods of wet weather on abandonment figures – in 2023 abandonments were 40% up in comparison with 2022 and if we look at the autumn/winter period that increase rises to nearly 70% – and the knock-on effects of bad weather are huge.
“In a pre-industrial climate, rainfall from storms as intense as the 2023-24 season, had an estimated return period of 1 in 50 years. However, in today’s climate, with 1.2°C of global warming, similarly intense storm rainfall is expected to occur more often, about once every five years. Climate change has also increased the amount of rainfall from these storms, making them about 20% more intense.” – Met Office, May 2024
Europe heating up at alarming rate
The UN says the world is on track for a 2.5-2.9 degree temperature rise above pre-industrial levels this century, and Europe is warming faster than anywhere else in the world. In the UK, future climate projections suggest increasing temperatures, increased rainfall patterns and flood risk, and more extreme weather events. As an industry, we need to plan for how we are going to adapt to these changing conditions.
The climate emergency is not the only threat to our sport, and we must also consider other planetary boundaries including fresh water, biodiversity and nature, and pollutants. The UK is one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries, we are in the bottom 10% globally for biodiversity. The State of Nature report published in 2019 highlights land use changes and agricultural demands as being key drivers in this decline. As custodians of a large amount of green space across the UK racing has a great opportunity to help address these challenges.
“Damage to the natural environment is slowing the UK economy, and could lead to an estimated 12% reduction to GDP in the years ahead – larger than the hit to GDP from the global financial crisis or Covid-19.” – Green Finance Institute, April 2024
Opportunities spotted at Goodwood
My career in racing is a happy accident; I started working at Sandown Park as a casual during university holidays. I studied Equine Science as an undergrad, not really knowing what I wanted to do with my life but knowing that I loved horses and science, so it felt like a good way to spend three years. In my time at Sandown, I got to know Paul Fisher, who was MD of Jockey Club Racecourses at the time and was offered a role as his PA based out of the Head Office at 75 High Holborn. I spent a fabulous five years working with the Exec team and really getting to know the racing industry before leaving the big smoke and heading for the infinitely more green and leafy Goodwood Estate. I spent seven years at Goodwood, initially in the Partnerships team, managing Festival of Speed, Goodwood Revival and Glorious Goodwood partners including Aston Martin, Ferrari, McLaren, Cartier and Qatar to name a few.
The events team at Goodwood are very good at environmental sustainability, holding ISO20121 accreditation which recognises sustainable event management, and were one of the first to be awarded this status after its launch following the 2012 London Olympics. I spotted an opportunity for the wider Goodwood Group to take a more coordinated approach to sustainability and to extend the best practice demonstrated by the events team into the other areas of the business so, following the COVID disruption, I transitioned to a new role within the Estate Team to focus on delivery of the Group’s Sustainability Strategy which had been introduced in 2019.
The role allowed me to work closely with teams from across the business to embed sustainable thinking into day-to-day operations, and to target actions across six key pillars of focus: Natural Capital, Carbon, Water, Waste & Resources, Social, and Business. This ranged from the preservation, restoration and creation of habitats to the introduction of renewable energy sources and improvements in the water network. We reported on progress in the annual sustainability report.
The actions taken by teams at Goodwood are paying dividends in reducing the carbon footprint of the estate, as well as inspiring innovative thinking, and the development and adoption of new technologies and practices – Goodwood Revival becomes world’s first historic motorsport event to race exclusively with sustainable fuel.
Moving the dial is key
There is an awful lot of good work already going on across the racing industry, and I have learnt so much in a short space of time about all the great initiatives and actions which are already in place and are making a huge difference – but we need to do more to raise awareness of those successes and celebrate them. Often people are unaware that the changes they have made, or the operational model they have chosen, has had a positive (or conversely a negative) environmental impact. In most circumstances any environmental benefits are secondary to the primary objective of cost efficiencies, and that is okay; the reason for a positive change doesn’t matter as much as the fact that we are actually moving the dial.
One of the blockages to progress against environmental goals and targets is the perceived cost of action. In many circumstances the payback period for the investments come over a longer period than is considered in standard business planning, so it requires a shift in mindset away from short-termism. The perceived cost of action (climate change ‘mitigation costs’) is also rarely considered against the cost of inaction, understandably so as this is difficult to quantify and not all impacts can be expressed in the single metric of money.
Racing not alone in needing to make a difference
My role will be to help coordinate, support and amplify the good work which is already underway, and to pull people together to collaborate and be creative about how we tackle some of the more existential challenges. A part of that process will include research and analysis to help us to fully understand our impacts, set targets and implement processes to improve our environmental performance. There will be many shared challenges within this space which I hope we can overcome together, and, from that, many opportunities should arise.
Racing is not alone in many of its challenges; the wider sporting industry is facing similar issues, and we have an opportunity to look beyond our gates and see how sport as a sector can leverage its power and collective voice to instigate purposeful action and deliver a positive environmental and social impact. There are so many opportunities in racing to make a real difference, in a way that will benefit not only our industry for the long-term but the health of our planet, and it doesn’t need to break the bank.
Racing touches so many people in different ways, as well as being a part of people’s everyday lives it is a sport which is watched and enjoyed by a huge audience, not only here in the UK but internationally. We have a fabulous platform from which to lead and inspire positive action.
This is about protecting the future of our sport, ensuring it is sustainable in the long-term by adapting and being resilient to environmental challenges, and playing our part in ensuring a brighter future for our planet and the societies which thrive upon it.
Momentum is high in the sporting world, and we need to keep up with the pace. My goal is for us to have a clear and accessible cross-industry strategy for how we are going to respond to environmental challenges in place by the end of 2025.
As you can probably tell, I am a bit of a geek, and this is a topic I can talk about forever, so I will leave it here for now, but if anyone wants to reach out to understand more or share thoughts and ideas please do not hesitate to do so – you can reach me at kcarr@britishhorseracing.com.
P:S – I highly recommend Madeline Orr’s book – Warming Up – How Climate Change is Changing Sport
References:
Climate change drives increase in storm rainfall – Met Office
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