Sustainability lessons: What can businesses learn about sustainability from the greatest sporting nation on earth? With the Paris 2024 Olympics coming to a close in three days time, Australia now sits third on the medal table (18 gold medals), further cementing its position as the greatest sporting nation in the world. Having a population of just 27 million people, on a per capita basis Australia’s medal count is an order of magnitude higher than that of the two sporting heavyweights ahead of it on the gold medal count, USA (27 gold medals, population 340 million) and China (25 gold medals, population 1,400 million).
So why is Australia such as great sporting country, and what can businesses learn from this to improve their sustainability performance? Here are seven reasons as to why Australia has done so well, and seven sustainability lessons for business.
- Financial investment in sporting facilities. Australia puts a lot of money into sport. There is a large investment, well over a billion dollars each year, put into sporting facilities, athlete coaching and training, broadcasting. Sustainability lessons: Reducing a businesses’ environmental impact requires significant financial investment, but leads to world class performance.
- Hard work. Australia came second, just one gold medal behind the USA, in swimming at these Olympics. Why? Hard, work, from a young age. Around the whole country, every school day morning, parents and kids and their coaches are getting up at 5am or earlier to go to swim training before school. It’s not glamorous. And the whole family contributes to the kids doing well in the pool. Sustainability lessons: Put the effort into activities, many of them unglamorous, that make you more sustainable, and everyone in the business should be expected to contribute. Think of your business as a swimmer, and don’t fall into the trap, which unfortunately many businesses seem to do, of thinking that just because you portray yourself as looking good in a swimsuit that you are actually good at swimming.
- Competition and keeping score. There seems to be an infinite number of sports you can compete in across Australia, and there are many sports with national level competitions. A large proportion of kids compete every week in a sport. And the score matters – did your team win or lose is the question asked when an athlete comes home Sustainability lessons. Have a scorecard – something easy to measure and easy to understand – so that you easily track your progress, and make looking at the score important in the business and a subject of conversation each week.
- Open, active, and transparent media. Being a sportsperson in Australia at the national level means you will be reported on by the mainstream media. The game will be broadcast. You’ll be analysed. Sometimes you’ll be praised, other times you might be criticised. You’ll be interviewed and asked for your feedback on the game. Occasionally you might even be on the front page, the very first item in a news bulletin. And if you are not at the national level? Well the local newspaper will still comment on the performance of its local teams. The benefit this provides is that it raises awareness, and holds sports people up to independent scrutiny. And being held to account publicly is motivating. Sustainability lessons. Be open to scrutiny and commentary on your performance, and even go ahead and publish your scores, good or bad, and encourage people outside your business to be aware of, and to comment on, how you are travelling. Perhaps even see if you can create a competition in your industry, with the trade media reporting on it.
- Great inputs. Australia has clean air and an abundance of healthy, fresh food. We have clean water supplies. Australian athletes have easy access to uncontaminated oxygen for their lungs, and nutritious and unadulterated food and water for their muscles, brains and bodies. They also have access to an enormous amount of junk food and sugar laden drinks! Sustainability lessons. Make it easy for your business to access great inputs, and reject junk, by having policies and operating procedures that expect and demand great inputs. Pressure your supply chain to do better if you think all they are offering is sub-standard in regards to sustainability. Consider the full environmental life cycle impact of what is purchased.
- Awesome coaches. A coach is someone who has intensely thought about, studied and observed sporting performance, and is able to help an athlete both with technique and their thinking about the game. Coaches are also held up to scrutiny and made accountable by the media. Sustainability lesson. Have a coach – someone whose whole career has been immersed in sustainability – work with your business to improve its sustainability efforts.
- Great expectations. With a lot of money going into sports in Australia, huge effort, not only from the athletes but supported by parents, grounds keepers, umpires and scorekeepers, sports medicine practitioners, coaches, nutritionists, government and the media, an Australian participating in sports is expected to perform. Australians expect their Olympic athletes to do well at the Olympics, and we would be disappointed if our team didn’t; as it is we are overjoyed with our record medal haul in Paris. Sustainability lessons. Invest, put in the hard work, be open and transparent, keep score, get great advice, and expect your business to shine in its sustainability performance with the results to speak for themselves. Maintain internal pressure, and seek if you can create external pressure, to perform at a high level and to continually improve.
Sustainability lessons summary
Gold medal performance in business sustainability can be achieved through investment, hard work, keeping score, being open and transparent, choosing great inputs, coaching and have high expectations!
