When I first decided to do a blog post on partnerships for sustainability, I expected myself to write about partnerships in the fashion and textile industry as they are most prominent. Instead when I started my research I was hit by a swarm of articles outlining how sports partnerships can drive sustainability, especially due to major sporting events coming back in full swing as we’re nearing the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. As highlighted by Ball Corporation President, Dan Fisher, marketing in sports is moving away from viewing sports partnerships as just a way to sell products and to seeing them as an emerging platform to spread awareness and solutions for sustainable future. This is also the goal of the Green Sports Alliance which is an organization which brings together sports teams, venues, corporate and government entities, and fans to promote sustainable behaviour in the sports sector and beyond.
Being large scale events that attract fans from all over the world, sporting events and their participants can be a major vehicle for change and have positive influence on the spectators. This year’s SuperBowl was one such event where the impact of sustainable sports partnerships were brought to light. Ball Corporation partnered up with Anheuser-Busch and the SuperBowl to distribute the new “Ball Aluminum Cup” as the new sustainable choice to have a drink at events. The cup provides a sturdier and, more importantly, a more environmentally-friendly option to plastic cups as aluminum can be recycled infinitely without losing its quality. Sporting events are said to use around 51 million plastic cups each year out of which most is not recycled so using aluminum cups instead would have had a major decrease on the environmental impacts of the SuperBowl. Using these cups at one major event could also have a ripple effect for more partnerships like this in order to make sports a sustainable industry.
Ball Aluminum Cup at the SuperBowl
A partnership like the one between Ball Corp., Anheuser-Busch and the SuperBowl can be categorised as a sustained transactional partnership as these corporations can work together annually to bring about change in sustainably having a drink at the event. However if Ball Corp decides to take their sustainable endeavours in sports event to all their partners in the Green Sports Alliance, it does have potential to create various integrative partnerships as they will be trying to “balance bottom-line considerations with social and ecological concerns.”
Sources
https://sports.yahoo.com/sports-partnerships-drive-sustainability-boost-105534904.html
https://greensportsalliance.org/about/
https://www.ball.com/aluminumcups/features
https://ensia.com/voices/can-sports-make-sustainability-mainstream/
