Sport England today launched Every Move, their new sustainability strategy and action plan, to help support the sport and physical activity sector respond to climate change. Participation levels are being affected by the increasing prevalence of climate change events such as heatwaves and flooding.

Today’s announcement comes as new research, which forms part of Sport England’s latest Activity Check-in report, reveals that three in five adults and children (60%) say extreme weather has had a negative impact on their ability to be active, with one in four of the children negatively affected, citing the cancellation of PE and games lessons.

Sport England chair, Chris Boardman, said:
"There is no doubt that our changing climate is already impacting our opportunities, motivation and ability to be active.

"Extreme weather is increasingly making it difficult for us to live healthy, active lives by creating a ‘doom loop’ where people become less motivated and more fearful of injury, with sporting opportunities increasingly cancelled and disrupted.

"Without change now, the government’s target to get 3.5 million more people active by 2030 is very much in jeopardy – and our children will be the ones to suffer most.

As a system partner of Sport England, the Youth Sport Trust is committed to sustainability and responding to climate change. In particular, the Youth Sport Trust has outlined the following steps we are undertaking:

• We are committed to be carbon neutral by 2050.
• We launched our Environment and Sustainability policy in April 2023, replacing our carbon reduction plan.
• We use the FuturePlus sustainability management and reporting framework to measure our current impact and set time-bound targets across Climate, Environment, Economic, Diversity & Inclusion, and Social impact. Our sustainability strategy is based on making achievable, incremental, and measurable ESG improvements across the organisation in line with our broader goals and initiatives.
• We are measuring our scope 1 & 2 emissions (emissions we control either directly or indirectly) – these are baselined from 2022/23.
• We are currently baselining our scope 3 emissions for business travel and commuting for 2023/24.
• A Carbon Footprint Review was undertaken by The Sustainability Group on the 2024 Youth Sport Trust National Conference, with recommendations in place to reduce the carbon footprint of the event by up to 30% in 2025.
• We have commissioned The Sustainability Group to undertake a Carbon Footprint Review on the 2024 School Games National Finals.
• Our key supplier One Stop Solutions achieved certified carbon neutral status early in 2024.

You can find out more Sport England’s new sustainable strategy and action plan Every Move here.