Sir Keith Mills delivers keynote environmental speech

Sir Keith Mills, Team Principal of the British America’s Cup challenger TEAMORIGIN, today delivered a speech at the Future Sponsorship Conference in London detailing the role sport can play in addressing pressing environmental issues. Sir Keith, who also holds the posts of Deputy-Chairman of LOCOG and Non-Executive Director of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, set out several ways in which his current sporting projects are already making an impact on climate change and outlined his pattern for future sponsorship in a world of increasingly environmentally conscious business and marketing agendas.

With the world’s political leaders, NGOs and global companies set to focus on core sustainability issues in the run up to the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December, Sir Keith highlighted the fact that sport can be used to align companies with the CSR issues that resonate with consumers.

Sir Keith stated: “The current financial crisis I believe has fundamentally changed our values, both corporately and in terms of consumer behaviour, and this will inevitably impact on the sponsorship market… Future sponsorship needs to be relevant and it needs to be socially responsible.”

Sir Keith detailed how, during his time as LOCOG Deputy-Chairman, over half a billion pounds in corporate sponsorship has been raised for the London 2012 Games. He explained that companies such as BT, BP and EDF Energy have been attracted by the Games’ comprehensive sustainability agenda, which they see as strategically important for their businesses.

“Sponsorship is becoming more strategic and less tactical”, commented Sir Keith. “Businesses are reengineering their operations to reduce their carbon footprint and demonstrate their commitment to sustainability.”

Central to Sir Keith’s message was the project that he has undertaken with the British America’s Cup sailing team, TEAMORIGIN. Under the banner Race for Change, TEAMORIGIN has signed an agreement with the government-backed Carbon-Trust in order to demonstrate how carbon efficiency need not impact on performance (whether in business or sport) and to attract commercial partners who wish demonstrate their commitment to a detailed sustainability agenda.

“The Carbon Trust’s mission is to show companies how they can reduce their carbon footprint and, at the same time, improve their financial performance. Our America’s Cup team and our Race for Change campaign are designed to underpin that message and corporate responses have so far been very positive.

“I think we will see more and more sports events and teams pursue similar environmental strategies. Sport has an unbelievable ability to reach hundreds of millions of people around the world, for example think what cricket could do to impact behaviour change in India. The opportunities are endless and the sponsorship industry is in a great position to play its part in tackling the global issue of climate change.”