The GIANTS held their first GIANT Impact Lunch last week, bringing together GIANTS staff and athletes to collaborate on how the club can better impact the environment and become a more sustainable organisation.

Led and hosted by GIANTS AFLW player Nicola Barr, the lunch comes off the back of the GIANTS recently re-committing as a member of the Sports Environment Alliance (SEA).

The Sports Environment Alliance is a not-for-profit organisation focused on celebrating environmental leadership and advocacy in the sporting community. SEA works with members to make better choices about the way their operate to ensure we all have places to play for generations to come.

The GIANTS’ commitment to the SEA and the Impact Lunch are just the first steps in a number of actions the club is taking to influence change within their community.  

A leader in the environmental and sustainability space, Barr has been championing change at the GIANTS, which she says are pivotal for all sports clubs as the next generation of fans look to align themselves with teams that share their values in this area.    

To learn more about how climate change is impacting sport and the AFL, GIANTS Media sat down with Barr to chat about how she got into the climate change space, what the GIANTS are doing to minimise their environmental footprint, and how we can all help.  


Nic, let’s start with the GIANTS Impact Lunch. Can you tell us a little about that and what its purpose was?

Yeah, so last week we had our first climate and sport lunch with staff from the office as well as some of the players.

It was just an opportunity for us to learn more about the relationship between sport and climate. I think we've all experienced things like bushfires impacting our air quality, and extreme heat or torrential rain impacting our games, so it was really just about making the link between the two.

As part of the lunch, we invited one of our AFLW members along who came to speak to us about her family's first-hand experience with the Lismore floods recently in northern NSW. I think it's important that our members are heard because they are also being impacted by climate change.

In Western Sydney, which is a very culturally diverse area and where people do face a lot of socioeconomic challenges, all of these extreme weather events can really compound existing disadvantages, so I think it's important the GIANTS are proactive in this space to support our community.

We also had Brittany Vermeulan from Western Sydney University speak to us - she works in sustainability education there. We've got a great partnership with WSU and it was great to have her there to facilitate a workshop for us. We got in small groups to discuss some ideas for the short term and long term, and then also what we need to do to get these projects off the ground.


Everyone in the AFL community knows you for what you can do on the field, but off the field climate change is something you’ve been very passionate about for a while now. What got you into this space?

Good question, and there's probably a few different reasons.

I grew up always being outside and in nature, and it's something that's always been important to me, and my family and friends. Even now whenever I feel stressed or want a re-set, I always look to nature to do that, and what I've seen over the last few years is that nature is being smashed by climate change, and that really concerns me.

The tipping point more recently that really sparked my interest was when we had to train in the bushfire smoke. I remember going out there and thinking, how is this impacting my health as an athlete? When it actually starts to affect what you love to do and your everyday life, it's pretty scary.

I know that I'm in a very privileged position as an athlete to do more in this space, and I want to be able to use my voice for as much good as I possibly can.


How is climate change affecting sport do you think?

Yeah, climate change is impacting sport and that's not just elite sport, it's also grassroots sport as well.

We know that lots of local clubs have been impacted, particularly in NSW. Most recently we’ve seen the rain and floods completely destroying grounds which has resulted in cancelled or delayed games, and this excessive rain we have been getting minimises crowd attendances as well as the quality of the game at a professional level as well.

We also saw the AFL having to enforce a heat policy as AFLW was previously played over the summer months. From a GIANTS’ perspective up until about 2019 we had 13 of our 19 home games impacted by poor weather or heat.

It means that our communities aren’t being able to get out and play or attend their weekly sport which is disappointing as these are the things that tie people together, particularly through hard times.


Why do you think it is important for sports clubs to get involved in the environmental sustainability space? What is the research saying?

I think we can say that sport has a unique opportunity to be a real leader in climate change.

People look to sport because for them, sports clubs align with their values and people are drawn to organisations based on the values they uphold. In the same way consumers are leaning towards more sustainable products and brands - it’s not just about performance on the field anymore, people are putting an emphasis on what aligns with their values.

In the United States, there's a lot of clubs that are really engaged in this space, in particular the Philadelphia Eagles. They’ve created this amazing program called Go Green where they look to innovate and sustain as much as possible and it’s interesting because when they surveyed their fans, they found that the Go Green program is the number two reason their younger demographic of fans come to games and support the Eagles.  

I think that that's pretty telling because they're standing up for values that are important to them and they want to support that club as a result of that. These are also the fans that are going to be filling the stands for years to come, so you want to appeal to them.


What are some of the first steps or actions the GIANTS are taking, or have already undertaken to minimise their environmental impact?

That was one of the things we spoke about at the Impact Lunch, that the GIANTS are already doing some fantastic things in this space.

Things like recycled water around the facility, recycled toilet paper, solar panels on a lot of our buildings. We also just implemented organic bins around the facility to try and divert our waste from landfill, which does contribute to a lot of CO2 emissions.

We’ve also done some work with our members to ‘go green’. GIANTS members now receive vouchers in their fulfilment packs rather than just being given a product. This means the product that they end up getting is going to last them longer because they get to select it as opposed to being something they don't really want and might throw away. We’ve also pushed their ticketing access to be digital as opposed to printing plastic cards, too.

We've also got a working group now that consists of people from different departments around the club that come together every month to help make us more environmentally sustainable, as well as some really engaged players - Izzy Huntington and Tarni Evans are two of those. Izzy works for the AFL Players For Climate Action and Tarni is a player delegate in that space and they’re both on board with encouraging our athletes who might not be engaged in the climate conversation.


What are the next steps for the GIANTS?

So we're doing a lot of awesome things already, but I think the next step is probably going to be signing up to the UNFCCC Sports For Climate Action Framework.

There's lots of organisations that have signed up already and the purpose of the framework is to provide some great guiding principles for clubs to do more in this space. They talk a lot about clubs being able to build their brand reputation through climate leadership and be real leaders in this space because people want to listen to athletes and sports clubs.


Anything else you want to add?

The only other thing I'd add is that we're very early on in this journey at the GIANTS and we are aware that our operations do contribute to CO2 emissions. So for us, I think it's just about us trying to learn from others, work together with other people, and do our bit to create change.

We have a responsibility to protect the future of our sport, and to give young people the opportunity to play sport in a safe and healthy planet for years to come. 

Additionally, we've got some great partners on board who are doing awesome things in this space too in particular Capital Brewing who are an official B-Corp organisation, BINGO, and Western Sydney Uni as well who have a great strategy around financial sustainability.

We know all parts of the Australian economy are going to have to change and adapt when it comes to environmental sustainability, but it’s one we’re trying to lead the way in at the GIANTS.