SailGP, a global leader in purpose driven and sustainable sport, will highlight its ongoing commitment and passion to climate action with the first of many Race For The Future takeovers at the Emirates Dubai Sail Grand Prix presented by P&O Marinas, taking place December 9-10.
Held at the same time as the city hosts COP28 – the biggest climate change conference in the world – SailGP will use the sixth event of its Season 4 calendar to demonstrate the huge power of sport for good to inspire action and change mindsets.
SailGP is the first organization to introduce a pioneering ‘podium for the planet’ – the Impact League, the first sport to disclose with CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) in 2022 with a B- score and the first to achieve both the Carbon Neutral International Standard and three gold medals in the U.N. Climate Neutral Now Initiative.
As a result, it has established a presence and voice as a global leader in sport, passionately campaigning for a better sport and a better planet.
SailGP will deliver a Race for the Future takeover and use the color yellow – which symbolizes hope and optimism – to highlight the issue and solutions across its channels. The takeover will showcase how the league is racing for impact, innovation, inclusivity and clean energy solutions.
SailGP will also use the opportunity to challenge other sports to embed sustainable action into their DNA like the championship has done with the world’s first ever Impact League, which rewards and scores teams on their positive environmental and social action.
Through introducing two podiums – one for sports and one for the planet – 75% of athletes in Season 3 changed their behavior and the team’s cut their energy consumption by 50%.
On the ground at the Emirates Dubai Sail Grand Prix presented by P&O Marinas there will be a host of innovative, ground-breaking activations delivered for the first time showing how events can be run more sustainably, including:
Together with Aggreko, the world-leading provider of mobile modular power, SailGP will have the largest temporary solar array they have ever installed at an event, as vast as six basketball courts
The event will be powered by 100% clean energy on shore saving a massive 64 tonnes of carbon – the equivalent of taking 14 cars off the road for a year
Cutting-edge remote broadcast, umpires and event control to reduce the events carbon footprint
A reduction of 36% to its on-water fleet through thinking differently and technology – taking race management and team coaches all off-water and creating an innovative on-shore solution using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)
Showcasing the racecourse of the future with the development of autonomous marks that are electrically powered and operated via GPS
For the first time, SailGP will have an all-female athlete team training together on a F50 as part of its ambition to be the most inclusive league in sailing and change the face of the sport
SailGP will also encourage its teams to use their voices for good and has added an Impact League incentive that will see teams earn points towards the overall Impact League leaderboard for engaging their fans around purpose related digital content
Hannah Mills, SailGP’s Global Purpose Ambassador and member of the Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team, said: “Sport has the power to inspire people to engage with some of the most important causes of our time like climate change and the environment. The reach sport is able to achieve is unparalleled to almost anything else.
Fiona Morgan, Chief Purpose Officer at SailGP, said: “We have a unique opportunity to be racing during COP28 and we need to ensure it is one that we galvanize and show the power of sport in the climate conversation.
"The world needs a half time talk – something that is familiar to us in sport – and we want to show that if you think differently, impossible is just a mindset, and that there is hope and optimism in what is a pretty bleak landscape, and that’s what we want to highlight through our Race for the Future takeover."
The Emirates Dubai Sail Grand Prix presented by P&O Marinas takes place from December 9-10, at Mina Rashid.