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Active Humber: accelerating carbon emissions reduction

Active Humber is one of the 43 active partnerships across England and, as a charity, it exists to make it easier for everyone to enjoy an active life.

The Humber region faces dual challenges: it is both one of the highest carbon-emitting regions, and least physically active regions in the UK.

  • What have they done?

    Active Humber’s CEO, David Gent, saw the need for leadership in the sector and acted, firmly believing that sport can be a catalyst for climate action.

      To remain relevant, to protect sport and physical activity, to play their part in the climate crisis, they felt compelled to take action.  

      Active Humber started by tackling their own carbon emissions. Rather than using carbon calculators, the team focused on 12 carbon reduction actions across their operations that they knew would reduce emissions, including:   

      • Moving office to a low-carbon building  
      • Prioritising hybrid meetings to reduce travel  
      • Switching to an ethical, low-carbon bank and pension provider 
      • Encouraging employees to reduce energy use at home  
      • Purchasing sustainable and ethically responsible products, like sports kits and local, in-season produce.
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    An infographic showing Active Humber's roadmap for environmental sustainability. It has six steps - acknowledge, change, tackle, influence, visible and equality.

    The Active Humber team want to lead by example; however, they appreciate that emissions from their operations (their organisational carbon footprint) are tiny compared to those of their partners and the wider sports sector.

    The team are therefore now focused on how they can best use their influence in the sector to encourage reductions in carbon emissions.

    • How have they done it?

      Active Humber appreciate that for everyday citizens, climate change is scientifically complicated and can feel overwhelming and distanced from our lives.

      The team believe that sport can be used to communicate the challenges of climate change and connect with people directly. As David Gent says: "Sport is able to connect people from all walks of life and explain rather complicated and difficult things in a simple way."

      Active Humber have helped influence carbon-reducing actions across the region, for example: 

      • Switched the School Games competitions to more local, smaller competitions, requiring less travel.  
      • During the eco-fest festival, a moving art gallery was created, with images attached to cyclists to spread awareness of the issues.  
      • The West Hull rugby league club replanted areas of their grounds with flowers and long grasses, creating a biodiverse meadow.  

      To support local sports clubs and the community to reduce emissions, Active Humber provides numerous resources online, including roadmaps, case studies, articles, guidance, blog posts, videos, and many more.  

      Active Humber are partnering and collaborating with different organisations regionally and nationally to drive and connect reduced carbon emissions and healthier, more active lifestyles.

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    • Outcomes

      Active Humber has raised awareness about the connection between carbon and physical activity at a local and national level, taken action to reduce their operational emissions, and influenced the local physical activity sector to do the same.

      Further outcomes from Active Humber’s work include: 

      • Financial benefits – reducing waste and improving efficiencies has saved money.  
      • Improved sense of community through collective action and building human connections.  
      • Wellbeing benefits for those involved, with David saying: "It feels good to feel like you’re helping."

      Active Humber’s CEO encourages everyone to do something every single day that edges us towards a better future.

      "You can’t win every game in the whole season; you’ll win some games, lose some games, but you still might win overall. It’s worth trying," he says.

      Both codes of rugby are big in the Humber and the Active Humber team believe that the analogy of ‘you get knocked down, but you get back up again’ rings particularly true for tackling climate change.

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    What might you do immediately to reduce your emissions?

    Top tips

    1
    Just do it! You don’t need to calculate a carbon footprint to act.
    2
    Change your electricity supplier and reduce your mileage by car-pooling to your next event.
    3
    Partner and collaborate with others: we’re in this together.

    Find out more

    Visit the Active Humber website

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