Sustainability In Sport: British Grand Prix And Silverstone (Podcast)

Our new podcast series dives into the world of sport. In this first episode, we take a look at sustainability and how it can be embeded into the sport sector.

Sustainability partner Ben Stansfield sits down with Stephane Bazire, head of Business Sustainability and Partnerships at Silverstone, the legendary home of the British Grand Prix and MotoGP events.

Stephane explores the sustainability journey Silverstone is on, its strategy and future plans to be net-zero by 2023.

He delves into best practices and advice for business to embed sustainability across an organisation and also shares how to overcome the common challenges when dealing with stakeholders and leadership teams.

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Transcript

Welcome to the latest episode of Gowling WLG's Listen Up podcast where we look at a range of topics trending in the legal and commercial landscapes.

Ben Stansfield: Hi my name is Ben Stansfield, I'm a sustainability partner at Gowling WLG focusing on climate and environmental issues.

I'm here today with Stephane Bazire, the head of Business Sustainability and Partnerships. Stephane, thanks for speaking with us today.

Can you please start by telling us about the sustainability journey that your currently on at Silverstone and maybe highlight one or two of the key achievements you've had in the past couple of years?

Stephane Bazire: Yeah, thank you, thanks a lot Ben for inviting me.

So, everything started really at Silverstone in 2019, when Formula 1 announced their sustainability strategy and decided to be in net-zero by 2030. That's been really the wake-up call for us to start thinking how we can embed sustainability in everything we do. Obviously, at that time, that net-zero journey was not clear at all. We probably didn't really understand, what it meant, being net-zero. So obviously 2020-2021 Covid hit, and that plan to start embedding sustainability at Silverstone was a little bit postponed. We didn't have at Silverstone a person in charge of leading that transformation and I had the chance to be hired and be that leader.

Ben: Perfect. And have you faced any specific challenges, or has it been plain sailing - we can hear the race cars going by as we speak which is absolutely very exciting - but any challenges, any difficulties you've had along the along the way?

Stephane: So, I think when you start a sustainability journey obviously you need to set up first a strategy. That's obviously key. And I would say even before the strategy you need to have a commitment of the top management of your organisation. This is the case at the British Racing Drivers Club, who is the owner of the Silverstone racetrack, and also our Leadership team and especially our managing director and now CEO Stuart Pringle that really had that vision to embed sustainability and everything that we do.

So, first of all, big commitment, set up obviously also a budget for it. And then making sure that you know how far you want to go to make that sustainability strategy a reality. So, we have that commitment at Silverstone. We now also have a strategy that has been defined over the last couple of years. We've decided to call it Shifting to Zero.

Ben: Stephane, I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about the specific challenges that you face sometimes these things don't go as smoothly as you might hope. How's it been for you in the three years you've been there?

Stephane: I think one of the main challenges when you start sustainability transformation journey within our organisation like Silverstone is obviously education; how much your employees, your collaborators, your different stakeholders are actually aware of what sustainability means. Very often, sustainability is related to just the environmental aspect, and you need to start telling them that actually there is more than that - you do know that there are three pillars in society it's all about planet but also people and the prosperity aspect of your business. So, probably the first hurdle is making sure that they understand what sustainability means and then trying to tell them how they can support that effort to make sustainability a reality within your company.

Ben: Perfect. And have you had any failures, I don't want you feel like its confession time, but projects you've started on the sustainability at the circuit that have been harder to get going than you thought they might be?

Stephane: Well, sustainability by nature is slow, it's not something that you see necessarily the result straightaway. But you've got quick winds and I would say that more than big hurdles or failures over the last two years, I think we can say that we've been achieving a lot over the last two years and probably much quicker than in many other organisations and then there are various reasons for that.

First of all, obviously when your main client, your biggest event which is Formula 1 decides to get into that net-zero journey before 2030. Obviously, it helps tremendously because you've got a huge incentive, to make sure that "Oh, my god, my bigger client wants to be the most sustainable championship around the world". How can we support that? And we have to support that. So that helps a lot, that's a huge incentive. And obviously, we also have the change that over the last two/three years, Silverstone has been very successful, we've had a crowd record over the last three years; we've hit almost half a million people in 2023. And obviously when you've got so much popularity and so much revenue generated by that it also helps sustainability being implemented quicker.

When you do have resources and that's probably the second thing that I would put into my let's say 'key to success' is education, commitment, but also resources. If you do not have resources allocated to it, obviously it makes it complicated. And we've got the chance to have all that ready at Silverstone to make it a success.

Ben: Yeah. And I was going to ask you about sustainability strategies and what makes them successful and whether it's employees, whether it's customers, whether it's sort of the wider stakeholder, your spectators or whether it's, investors directors, all that kind of stuff. It sounds like its coming primarily from Formula 1 is that fair?

Stephane: Yeah definitely. But I think it was also very important for us to make sure that whatever we decide in terms of our sustainability strategy it serves Silverstone all year long, across all the different businesses or activities that we have at Silverstone. Obviously, F1 is our main client. This is the main events that we run at Silverstone but that sustainability strategy that we started defining from 2019 also coincides with that desire to diversify our business activity at Silverstone to make sure that we are not just only one weekend event per year, but actually a facility, a destination that hosts events all across the year from January to December. And that business strategy has been supported by the opening of the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel and that was opened 18 months ago that has 197 bedrooms and then we're going to open this summer Escapade, which is a resort which has basically 60 residences that multiply by two accommodation capacity onsite, and that will help us - and it's already happening, helping us dramatically - in increasing the diversification of the type of events that we can host at Silverstone and especially in the Wing Building where we are at the moment, which is the biggest exhibition centre in between London and Birmingham - more than 12,500 square metres - where we can host any type of events in parallel to whatever track activity that we may have every day.

So, that business diversification, that sustainability strategy has been somehow developed in parallel and totally integrated in one with the other and we do see now the result of that. Because a few years ago when we've been asked by event organiser "oh, do you have EV charging points at Silverstone? Do you have solar panels at Silverstone? Are you powered by 100% green electricity?" And when we were answering "no", sometimes we were actually losing out the opportunity I mean to host that event that year.

Ben: Sure.

Stephane: So, now that we've been going through certifications, or at least putting together a proper strategy, getting our own credentials in terms of sustainability, we know that those credentials are helping us in securing more business outside the F1 Grand Prix.

Ben: Perfect, thank you. So, a lot of our clients at Gowling WLG are like you and sort of well advanced on their sustainability journeys, but I always tell anyone who'll listen that sustainability impacts every business and organisation no matter what their size, one or ten hundred thousand people in whatever business sector, in whatever jurisdiction. So, if you had the opportunity to give two or three sort of top tips to businesses setting out on their sustainability journey what would the two or three essentials be for them?

Stephane: Well, first of all, the first question is why? Why do you decide to put sustainability in the heart of what you do?

Ben: Yeah.

Stephane: And there is probably another question that you need to answer is; what is the purpose of your business and how then sustainability will help your business, in growing. So, 'the why' is the first question you need to answer, and I think it's been clear for us that integrating sustainability in everything that we do will help us in diversifying our business. So, understand the why, making sure that you know the purpose of your business, that you've got a vision, that you can then transmit to all your different stakeholders. Because if you do have a clear direction, where to lead your company to, then it's much easier for all your different stakeholders to support, that direction that you're looking at driving into. So, from the moment that you know where you're going then you can get better support. So, this is what we've been doing at Silverstone; first we've defined the strategy, we decided to call it 'Shifting to Zero' and we've explained that we are supporting F1 in their efforts to be net-zero by 2030, and we also said that you cannot manage what you don't measure.

Ben: Yeah.

Stephane: Which means you need to start collecting data. Any decisions that needs to be taken cannot be taken just because someone within the company has an idea, it has to be totally backed up or problem right or wrong from data. So, the big thing that we've been doing over the last two years is trying to measure our carbon footprint that's one, and making sure that you've got a right diagnosis of the situation of where your company is in terms of sustainability. And when it comes also to sustainability you talk about risk management, so how the current situation, the climate change effect that we already feel every day and what they could be in five, ten, twenty, thirty years could impact your business. So, that should then help you in defining where you want to be in order to protect you and also making sure that you take the right decision. So, going back, I mean, to decision making and in the middle of the energy crisis a couple of years ago we looked at how much energy will we spend in the coming 25 years with the result of that question was hundred million pounds.

Ben: Wow, over 25 years?

Stephane: So, obviously that was when the energy was so high. So, then you start thinking "oh, what can I do to make sure that that cost is being reduced?". So, a decision of where risk management, cost control is very much linked to sustainability and then you say "well, let's equip ourselves with solar panels because in that case, one or one and a half million pounds investment over 18 months, to install those solar panels on top of your building will have a return on investment in less than seven years. It's a 'no brainer' as we say in England right, when you've got so much easy return on investment.

So, cost control, quick win; solar panels on top of the Wing, which is our exhibition centre building, which helps everybody in having something very tangible, very visible for them to identify. So, that first actions almost that we've done at Silverstone installing those solar panels on top of that building and then people say "oh, Silverstone is doing something, they're equipping themselves with those solar panels that generates 13% of our annual electricity consumption. So that's a very tangible number. EV charging points: we've got now 24 EV charging points onsite. And if we go back to the energy, we also have, as you can imagine, many, many generators that we use during the event because we've got 600 acres to cover, and you don't have an electric socket at every corner of those 600 acres. So, we use temporary generators, but all the generators are using HVO which is basically biofuel. So, going back to the tips that you were asking me earlier you need to measure, you need to have data, that data needs to prove that your actions are having impact. Solar panels, reduction of electricity consumption, HVO fuel reduction of carbon footprint this is the quick wins that you can definitely implement in your company. And then obviously on that road to zero, that carbon data exercise that we need to do. How do you get all your stakeholders involved? And so, we've decided to put together a digital platform where we invited all our suppliers to register and then start sharing with us all the data related to their activity with Silverstone in order to measure more accurately our carbon footprint.

Ben: And I wanted to ask you about your stakeholders and are you pushing at an open door with them? Are they keen to support you or are they doing it - okay it's a bit of an exaggerated but - because they have to if they want to continue to work with you?

Stephane: Well, I think it's a bit of both right?

Obviously, in the future, if all those suppliers are not capable of bringing the data and then solutions to reduce, because let's not forget that big mission is how do we reduce our carbon emissions. So, it's been clear over the last two years that first we do that exercise of collecting data to understand where we are and then we'll invite them to start providing solutions to make sure that we start that reduction path that we all need to take. So, that's probably also relative to procurement. You need to have a procurement policy. You are what you buy, right?

Ben: Yep.

Stephane: So, obviously if everything that you buy is net-zero, well then, your supply chain, your scope three emissions are almost zero, and this is the biggest challenge that most of the companies have at the moment is the scope three. So, if you do explain very clearly to all your suppliers that 'we are on that journey, we want to be a front leader, we want to showcase sustainability solutions', then little by little all your suppliers start getting onboard. And now that we've signed a 10-year contract with Formula 1, we know that we've got 10 years to try to find solutions and little by little get that net-zero fully integrated in everything that we do.

Ben: Yep, so that long-term relationship helps?

Stephane: Yes, definitely.

Ben: And do you find you're more collaborative with your supply chain on matters like net-zero and sustainability than you might be on another topic. For example, is it quite an open relationship that you're sharing best practices and learning from your other suppliers but your smaller suppliers who might not be able to afford, I don't know EV delivery trucks...

Stephane: Well, we know that 85% of our carbon emissions are probably generated by around 20 key suppliers...

Ben: Right.

Stephane: ...while we have more than 700.

Ben: Right, wow.

Stephane: OK, so then the whole idea is to work with those 20 to 30 suppliers with them you know that any improvement will have a major impact.

Ben: Sure.

Stephane: OK, so I think it's very important for any business to identify who are your key players and the moment that they are identified well have that open conversation saying could you in the coming two, five, ten years bring solutions together that could then help us in reaching not only yours but ours obviously goal. So, the good thing about Silverstone is that obviously we are part of the major event organiser association, we are one of the big players within the world of sporting events in the UK.

Ben: Yeah.

Stephane: And the whole idea is to try to share good practices between all the different members because at the end most of the suppliers are actually similar to one with the other. So whatever we try to implement at Silverstone could serve other sporting events organiser and then if we all do that probably the cost of that medieval journey will end up much more affordable for everybody.

Ben: Sure, it makes sense. You talked earlier about a supportive chief exec and Board and I wondered do you have a board member who's allocated responsibility for sustainability matters and has that made a real difference?

Stephane: No, we don't have. The BRDC and the Board doesn't have really one person in charge. We are really trying to be as transparent; we want to empower the Board to make sure that they understand why we recommend sustainability to be implemented in one way or the other and how it will support the future of Silverstone. And they have been extremely supportive over the last couple of years, and you can see it. If we'd been achieving what we've been achieving over the last two or three years, it's because we've got full support from the BRDC that they have understood that this is one of the ways we need to follow if we want to secure the business sustainability of organisations for the decades to come.

Ben: Perfect. And then just a couple of more questions. What seeds are you sowing today that will blossom or flower in a few years' time? So, you might not get an instant quick win, but you know if you take steps today that in 2030 or 2029 that they will work.

Stephane: Yeah, I think the first thing that you start seeing is that the staff stat being fully onboard, better educated when it comes to taking decisions. Probably, a few years ago people didn't know what sustainability meant and now because we've been saying and repeating it that sustainability is one of our priorities and because we've been supporting them with policies, inductions, webinars, seminars, people start being knowledgeable and then being capable of making their own decision...

Ben: Yeah.

Stephane: ...applying that sustainability filter to whatever they need to buy or any service that they need to purchase. So, I think I mean this is number one.

Ben: I think that's a brilliant answer because I talk internally about success is anyone being a sustainability lawyer, a tax lawyer is inevitably doing sustainable work, same with a litigator whose thinking 'how can we do this in a more sustainable way', do we need to trapse down to court every day when we could do it virtually or whatever. So, it ties in a lot with what our clients are saying...

Stephane: That's good and I think what could be seen as a success in 10-20, its probably that we don't have a head of sustainability...

Ben: Yeah.

Stephane: ...because that will mean that sustainability is fully embedded within the organisation. So, obviously you need to have the right policies in place. We said that F1 is pushing us to get that net-zero target by 2030, but also the FIA which is the International Automobile Federation is asking every single F1 promoter, race organiser to be certified FIA 3 star environmental accredited.

Ben: Right.

Stephane: So obviously, when you've got this kind of certification in place, or framework in place, that helps you in putting together actions, it helps you a lot more than having a white canvas that you don't really know where to start with or from. So, having the fact that we, Silverstone, as any other F1 organiser to be certified FIA 3 star by 2025 also pushes us in embedding sustainability probably much quicker. So, this is what we've achieved in 2023. In '22, we were FIA 2 star accredited, in '23 3 star accredited. We also decided to be ISO 14001, which is the environmental management system accreditation, and we're looking at doing the ISO 20121:2024, which is sustainable event management by 2025. It will help us structuring on the framework everything that we do, and this is I think what people need. Strategy, structure, guidelines and also audit once in a while to make sure that obviously the good intention that you had at the beginning of the certification process are not forgotten along the way.

Ben: Yeah. Are you sharing your knowledge with other large sporting events? So, obviously we're motor racing here, but your learning is presumably applicable to football stadia or to large tennis or Commonwealth Games, which Gowling WLG were involved with. Is there anything, are you very collaborative with other industries?

Stephane: Yes, I've mentioned earlier that we're part of that major event organiser association and we've got a monthly meeting with other sustainability leaders of those organisations where we do share all those good practices. We also are being asked to take part of panels, doing key notes in events like the British Association in Sustainability in Sport, the basis at the end of April. We will be invited to do key notes at universities. We try to share as much as we can. I think the sustainability leaders might say that it's all about sharing and whatever solution that you end up apply within your organisation is not your own property. On the contrary, you need to share it and that's what we do. That's what we try to do because as I said before if we all implement sustainability, we will end up making sustainability much more affordable, not only for you but for everybody and if more people use it then it becomes more affordable also for you. So that's part of the gain. We are one planet, and we need to make sure that we all collaborate I mean to make sure that we can still live on that planet for many centuries to go.

Ben: Excellent. We spoke a lot about carbon and obviously carbon has a real focus in legislation in society but a lot of Gowling's clients are now looking at nature and thinking about biodiversity and other ways in which they can promote sustainability. And I wondered if you're looking at nature positive type sort of policies yet or whether that comes in a few years because you've still got quite a lot of steel carbon?

Stephane: Yes, so obviously we... when you talk about carbon and you do know the differences between scope 1, 2 and 3 and when you are signatory like we are of the UNFC Support for Climate Action, you've committed to reduce your carbon emission by 50% by 2030 and be net-zero by 2040. F1 have decided to be net-zero by 2030.

Ben: Yeah.

Stephane: So, there is that huge commitment but the net-zero means that you have reduced 90% of your emissions and your only allowed to offset or compensate only 10% of the emission that you cannot reduce.

Ben: Yeah.

Stephane: So, many people I mean going through that carbon neutrality exercise, but they end up buying credits in order to compensate the emissions that they are generating. So, before getting into these programmes which I think are very interesting to do, I'm not saying that we shouldn't start looking at offsetting part of our carbon emissions but I think first you need to make that exercise of trying to reduce as much as you can.

There is one element that we haven't talked about is that obviously we are where we are and at Silverstone when we've got more than almost half a million people coming on the weekend of the Grand Prix, most of the people do come by car. The carbon footprint at Silverstone is 99% scope 3 related...

Ben: Yeah.

Stephane: ...around a major event and more than 80% of that scope 3 emissions are fan travel.

Ben: Wow.

Stephane: So, even though we try to incentivise people to take buses, to take trains, to share cars, there will still be a lot of people coming by car at our major events because we don't have a tube or a train station nearby.

Ben: Sure.

Stephane: So, the question is fan travel, who should be accountable for that fan travel, carbon emissions. Is it the fan itself, is it the championship organiser, is it the venue hosting that event? Probably a bit of a mix of the three. And I do think that for fan travel, carbon emissions maybe an offset scheme could be envisaged where if there is no way to take another means of transport to come to the event maybe you can participate one of those programme that could capture some of the emission that you are generating. So, it is part of the solution but first you need to think about the reduction.

Ben: Perfect. Stephane, I'd like to talk to you about partnerships. Sustainability is a big challenge, is this something you can do alone or do Silverstone need to work with others?

Stephane: Yeah, partnership is a key element of a successful sustainability strategy. You do need to have the backup, the support of your suppliers, your sponsors in order to be able to get the right resources, the right solutions in place. So, this is what we've been trying to do over the last couple of years. We've been having the chance to get the support from Santander, that has been our sustainability partner for the last two years. And I think this is something that any sports organisations around the world should start thinking about. How can you make sure that some part of your partnership revenue gets dedicated to your sustainability strategy. We need to make sure that little by little we get some of the funds, that until now we're getting purely into revenue, are being invested in the sustainability transformation that organisation needs to do because without financial support, without investment into sustainability it will obviously slow down.

Ben: Yeah.

Stephane: So, partnership is definitely a key element of the success of your sustainability strategy.

Ben: And also a really important part of sustainability ESG is communicating your message to your stakeholders and finding ways to provide meaningful disclosure that actually gets into the science and the data but actually is really accessible to the person on the street who can then understand it. And I'm wondering do you do a lot of voluntary disclosure, or is there a mandatory reporting that you're required to supervise?

Stephane: So depending on the size of your business in the UK, if you've got more than 250 people or if you I think you are over £39 million in turnover, you need to start reporting on your ESG credentials, right.

Ben: Yeah.

Stephane: So, we've starting I mean doing the SECR reporting...

Ben: And just for those listening, Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting and energy savings opportunities.

Stephane: That's correct, that is SECR. Then we do the ESOS reporting, starting this year in 2024. We decided to start publishing a sustainability annual report last year that we've published around April or May. So, we have decided to be fully transparent, all the data that we've been collecting, we want to share them with all our different stakeholders for them to understand what we've been doing, where we would like to be. So yeah, communication is key, that's part of the education, engagement strategy because if you don't communicate then it's very hard especially, to get the support from all your different stakeholders. So yeah, good governance, very transparent strategy, transparency strategy is key to make sustainability successful.

Ben: Stephane, we've spoken a lot about carbon and nature and lots of environmental and climate issues in the context of sustainability, but obviously sustainability goes beyond that and we've perhaps talk a little bit more about social issues, are those still within your remit as well?

Stephane: Yeah, I think it's very important that you don't separate the S and the G of the ESG, from the environmental part of it. It is very important that we do look after the social aspects of sustainability as we do about the environmental issues, because if you don't change how people are involved then you will probably not be able to look after the planet the way you would like them to look after it. So, you do need to have the right policies in place as I said the governance, you need to make sure that you get the data, you need to make sure that you've got the certification that helps you in governing your organisation the best you can and you need to make sure that you look after the people that will make that all possible. So, we've talked about the educational aspect earlier and at Silverstone we've been doubling our workforce over the last two years so imagine lots of new people, new working culture that needs to be transmitted to those newcomers. This is then the opportunity to make sure that they understand what sustainability is all about, that we have a true EDI - equality, diversity and inclusion policy - a working culture. So, it's very important that we are being seen as a great employer, a great neighbour. You can imagine that the traffic around Silverstone during major events do have an impact on our local community.

Also, you'd be surprised that sometimes people are complaining that there is noise at Silverstone, of course. So, you need to do all that community management to make sure that local people know what we do, supporting them the best we can and I think we do support them, making sure that people stay at Silverstone during the major events. We had more than 60,000 people staying at Silverstone onsite during the British Grand Prix last year. That obviously benefit local businesses which is great. We need to make sure that they understand all the sustainability targets that we have and then obviously offering charities to use our platform to raise money or at least raise awareness around the cause that they're working for. So, this is what we are trying to do at Silverstone to make sure that we are fully embedding sustainability in those three aspects, the environmental, the social and obviously the governance and the business aspect of sustainability.

Ben: Perfect. Stephane I'm really grateful for you taking so much of your time to explain some really exciting initiatives that you're doing and being so transparent about the journey you're on and much success by getting to 2030.

Stephane: Thank you.

Thanks for joining Gowling WLG for this podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our website at gowlingwlg.com for more useful insights and resources and don't forget to subscribe to ensure you join us for our next episode.

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