Celebrating World Environment Day On and Off the Field!

Celebrating World Environment Day we brought together the sporting and climate communities across Melbourne for ‘On the Field, Off the Grid' event at the Melbourne Cricket Ground where we heard about the power of sport to ignite climate action and innovation! 

Deputy Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece opened the event relating how sport has the power to access the masses during his role as Chair of global men’s health charity Movember 

Sheila N. Nguyen set the scene about this immense global opportunity and how Melbourne can lean into its strengths and be a leader in bringing together sport and climate! She called out three major challenges in this being circular economy, clean mobility and sustainable operational efficiencies. There's plenty of work to do! 

We heard a keynote from Lindita Xhaferi-Salihu from United Nations for Climate Change on the importance of partnerships across cities, sport and business communities.
 

We heard about successful case studies from: 

• 
  Matthew Nicholas from Tennis Australia how they use their innovation fund to uncover climate solutions, 
  Peter Wearne shared how they were able to make the MCC operations carbon neutral 
  Tiffany Crawford shared how City of Melbourne is supporting climate innovation 
  
   

Followed by three pitches on current solutions in the market from: 

• UPPAREL - a company that recycles old sports jerseys and textiles to make high value products 
• ClimaSens - a data platform to help you understand climate risks 

• Origin Energy - who are creating EV infrastructure solutions 

   

  Chair of the Melbourne Climate Network, Alex Smith, invited the sporting community to join the network and work on solutions together. 
   

While the celebration was a resounding success the real impact was made by the sporting organisations stepping up to commit to Climate by partnering with the MCN: 

PARTNERS:   

• Australian Football League,  
• Richmond Football Club,  
• YMCA Victoria 

SUPPORTER:   

• Melbourne Cricket Club,   

MCN MEMBERS:   

• Tennis Australia,  
• Victoria Racing Club,  
• Tennis Victoria,  

• Bowls Australia 

  These sporting organisations will work with the MCN to co-design climate solutions for their respective sports. 

  Carbon Neutral planted a tree for every person who attended the gathering at the MCG.