Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes have teamed up with the Masters of Digital Media (MDM) students to launch Project Blue Sky – http://www.projectbluesky.ca.

Inspired by athletes, built by students and supported by the Official Carbon Offset Supplier to the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Offsetters Clean Technology Inc. (Offsetters), and the Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee (VANOC), Project Blue Sky uses the latest in on-line digital tools to motivate individuals and groups to take steps in their personal lives to fight climate change through increased physical activity and sustainable travel.

“Project Blue Sky is a place where you can connect with your favourite athletes, challenge your friends, tell your story and use kilometres to track your efforts to reduce your carbon emissions. You can cut your carbon emissions by cycling, walking, taking public transit or by coming up with other physically ingenious ways to save energy,” said B.C. Olympian Dave Calder, silver medallist (Rowing), a member of the Canadian Olympic Committee’s (COC) Athletes’ Council that has spearheaded development of the project.

Calder and his fellow COC athletes believe the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games represent an important opportunity to encourage more people to take action on climate change as well as draw attention to carbon saving initiatives already underway. “VANOC and its partners have set an ambitious goal of convening carbon neutral Games. Project Blue Sky’s goal is on an equally ambitious scale: by the end of the Closing Ceremonies for the Paralympic Games in March 2010 we want to have inspired individuals who care about climate change to contribute 1 billion kilometres of carbon-reducing activities from their daily lives.”

For full article please see: http://www.olympic.ca/en/news/project-blue-sky/

If 2007 was the year that environmentalism 2.0 rapidly became part of the consumer conscious, it was not going to be long before our industry found new ways to target a more compassionate audience.

Sport and the Environment at first seems like an unlikely couple of bedfellows and there have been a few interesting alliances (Honda F1 for example) but if you put both words into Google, there is no surprise that top of the list is the Olympic movement, the second rather more surprising is the United Nation Environment Programme which has a large sports ambassador programme.

The Olympic movement has a very distinct environmental legacy and many of London 2012 tier one partners have chosen to use their sponsorship to promote their green credentials. Whilst London is hoping to replicate Sydney in the public eye as a “green” Games, in my mind it is still unclear how LOCOG’s sustainability strategy will leave a lasting legacy on the rest of the UK.

This is an area where a carefully managed marketing campaign could produce remarkable results.  Sebastian Coe’s vision for what Sport could do for young people was a key element that won the London 2012 bid, but a clear vision of how the Games will leave an environmental legacy is an opportunity still waiting to be grasped.

What’s more difficult is how to position your brand to an environmentally aware audience that is becoming increasingly sceptical of words like Sustainability and Climate Change. Both words now so commonplace in most corporate guidelines that the consumer is becoming confused as what either actually mean anymore.

The sports industry needs to be careful here. Clearly the brand and image must be carefully aligned. A miss-match like F1 and the environment is not going to convince our cynical media or the consumer unless the science is stronger than the spin.

There are however some great success stories and I think EDF Energy’s partnership with London 2012 is one to carefully watch. Global brands that are developing strong links with environmentally clean sports have an obvious advantage and this could provide a welcome boost for some of our minority sports.

Posted by Conrad Humphreys on September 26th 2008