Sustainability Q&A with Desert Vipers
Water refills and climate stripes get the thumbs up from Tymal Mills
The UAE-based Desert Vipers, who play in the International League T20 (ILT20), are an unusual cricket team, in that they have decided to put tackling climate change and sustainability at the heart of what they do.
Formed in 2023, they are a brand new cricket franchise, yet have already made some impressive strides towards sustainability. To find out more, we decided to bowl an over of six questions at their full-time sustainability lead, Ben Hardy-Jones. Let’s see how he got on…
Q1) You’ve set an ambitious target of halving your emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2040… what change have you made as a club that’s had the biggest impact on reducing your GHG emissions?
As Dubai’s first signatory to the United Nations Sports for Climate Action Framework, we’ve committed to reducing our emissions by 50% by 2030, and reaching net zero by 2040. We’ve also set a ‘Stretch Target’ to reduce our emissions by 50% by 2028.
In order to reduce emissions, first you must measure. We produced a footprint figure for Season 1 of ILT20, which gave us a score on the board of 573 tonnes, and captured the main culprits of our footprint. In Season 2, we have continued to capture a lot more information, reporting on 29 areas (compared to 16 in Season 1). This has resulted in an increase in our footprint as we are capturing information from more areas of our business operations, which is likely to be around 620 tonnes in Season 2 (we are still finalising the figure).
However, the increase is less than would have been expected under business-as-usual, showing that emissions reduction measures have been successful. The single-most significant measure we have undertaken to date is to switch how we fly.
As a franchise club, there’s very few elements which we directly control. For example, we don’t own our stadium, or hotel, or training grounds. In addition, we are somewhat at the mercy of the pattern of leagues - with players coming to us from all over the world for the start of the tournament - and international teams - with some players getting called up to the national sides mid-tournament. We know that the majority of our footprint comes from international team travel, so this is the most urgent, but also the hardest element to address.
One of the ways in which we are trying to ‘control the uncontrollable’, is by sending signals to airlines. As standard, management now flies in Economy or Premium Economy, which does three things. Firstly, it lowers the share of footprint that we are accountable for, as we take up a smaller area of the plane. Secondly, it has a small material reduction in the footprint of the flight, as you get fewer bags, more mass-produced food (which usually has a lower carbon footprint), and you don’t get a personal chauffeur to and from the airport, so our team can get public transport or share cars. Lastly, and probably most importantly, it sends a signal to airlines that we are quite happy with the quality of economy class, and future planes can be designed / retrofitted to accommodate more passengers in the same plane, and so result in a fewer number of planes for the same number of people, saving fuel and emissions. We recognise that we are only a small number of people who use airlines, but where we must fly, we do so trying to make a difference and send a signal. This has reduced our footprint by 82 tonnes in Season 2 versus Season 1, so we encourage all sports teams to join us in flying economy, where they must fly.
Q2) Desert Vipers seem quite unusual in the world of cricket, for making sustainability such a key part of your club ethos. Who was the driving force behind your sustainability efforts?
That’s right - we are very unusual in the world of cricket for prioritising sustainability! In fact, we are the only cricket organisation in the world to have a full-time Sustainability Lead. I joined the organisation in October 2023 on an internship after finishing my Masters in Environmental Change and Management at Oxford University, and turned that internship into a full-time role in April 2024. Before I joined, Matt Bailey, Head of Sustainability and Strategy, had taken several steps to laying the foundation of our sustainability strategy.
As a new franchise, one of the first things to create was what the club’s core values should be. Being the ‘Vipers’, we settled on values of ‘HISS’: High performance; Innovation; Sustainability; and Social. It is clear how important sustainability is to us at the Desert Vipers as it is one of our core values, which is very unusual in sports.
While being the driving force behind sustainability at Desert Vipers, Matt has only been able to achieve all we have to date with the fantastic support of our CEO, Phil Oliver, and the rest of the team. As a CEO, Phil leads by example, and this is especially important when it comes to sustainability. Too many world leaders are lacking this characteristic, and it unfortunately ends up in people perceiving that their efforts are worthless. One comment that sticks with me that I saw online was under a post of Max Verstappen in his private jet. It read: “Meanwhile, I’m sipping through my paper straw which is disintegrating”. While not a climate advocate (although he should be, as his country (The Netherlands) is one of the most vulnerable to climate change), Max Verstappen’s post perfectly proves this disconnect between the elite and the ‘average’ person. Climate issues are a classic issue of The Tragedy of Commons, which requires an effort from everyone, and one person’s mistakes mean we all lose. Therefore, Phil leading by example means that everyone at the Desert Vipers is more motivated to contribute to solving sustainability issues together, as we truly are one team.
The Desert Vipers squad for 2024 with 'Net Zero 2040' on their shirts
Q3) Have you seen any of the negative impacts of climate change affecting Desert Vipers directly, cricket more widely, or the UAE in general?
To date, Desert Vipers haven’t yet been directly affected by climate change, thankfully. However, we are taking steps as a team to try and adapt to climate change, such as through providing state-of-the-art thermally-insulated water bottles to our players and team last season, which (as well as resulting in the successful elimination of 14,400 plastic bottles) ensured the team had cold water to drink throughout the day, reducing the chances of heat-related injuries.
Within cricket, there are numerous examples of the game being affected by climate change. One immediately thinks of Joe Root in Australia, taken to hospital when temperatures reached 47.3°C, or the devastation caused to the Men’s Cricket World Cup facilities after the season, from Hurricane Beryl which was the earliest forming Category 5 hurricane ever recorded. However, the real devastation is caused to the grassroots game, which is less able to adapt, and when games are cancelled due to climate-related weather events, impacts are felt across whole communities.
Cricket is also played in some of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. I saw this week in the news that a glacial lake overland flow (GLOF) had destroyed a village in Nepal, with glaciers melting at an accelerating rate due to climate change. Nepal is, of course, a cricket playing nation, and whether it’s GLOFs in Nepal, sea level rise in Bangladesh, hurricanes in the US, flooding in the UK, or bushfires in Australia, climate change is already impacting our game and its people today, and so we must take action now.
Desert Vipers' Shaheen Afridi drinks from his re-fillable water bottle
4) What do you see as the biggest challenge for Desert Vipers in your journey towards sustainability?
I think I’ve already touched on this in question one; however, it is important to draw out again. As a franchise club, there are very few areas under our direct control, and so effecting change is harder than we would like it. This means that we must double down on our efforts and push harder, as failure is not an option.
The other challenge is the cricket calendar, and its international nature. I believe that we need leadership from the ICC to ensure the growth of the sport does not come at the expense of our climate. The movement of players from franchise club to franchise club, circumnavigating the globe to play only a handful of games for each team, is something that needs to be addressed. This issue is not up to the players, as they must earn a living. Solutions must be thought of by the ICC; however, it might be as simple to solve as banning mid-season transfers, which will mean the days of a player flying to a team from halfway around the world for one match will be gone. I understand why teams do it (for competitive advantage), and I understand why players do it (because it’s their job), but this should be banned by the ICC / leagues, so that there is a level playing field, and instead, players would stay longer with each team, improving their welfare as they’re not constantly flying back and forth.
5) Emissions from transport, both players and fans, is one of the biggest impacts sport has on the climate. Have you made any efforts as a club to reduce that impact and encourage more sustainable travel options?
This is true of virtually all sports teams, and Desert Vipers are no different. However, our breakdown is slightly different to other sports and teams, as the vast majority of our fans travel to our matches in coaches. We did a survey last season and found out that around 90% of our fans come to our matches in buses, which are organised by the League. This ultimately means that fan travel takes up a much smaller share of the footprint than other clubs. However, for those fans who don’t come to the matches in the League-organised buses, we are actively encouraging more sustainable forms of transport. Last season, we released advice for getting to all three venues we played at in advance of our matches, and provided the carbon footprint information for the different modes of transport.
In terms of player transport, we have been encouraging players to fly in a lower class, although uptake to date has been limited. This is for various reasons, but by beginning the conversation now, we hope that over time players will start to take note of these things, and will become increasingly aware of what they can do.
6) Lastly, we think cricket and sport in general can be an excellent vehicle for driving positive change in the world. How do you as a club amplify your sustainability message and do the players themselves get on board?
There is no better vehicle for driving positive change than sport in the world, as it reaches virtually every corner, and brings people together from all walks of life. At Desert Vipers, we want to use the power of sport to benefit people and the planet, and we recognise that as a club, we have a relatively low footprint (for comparison, 600 tonnes is roughly equivalent to the footprint of an ODI at Lord’s), so the potential for us to create change is through our fans and partners.
Last season, we took the bold step of placing our Net Zero pledge on the front of our shirt in our lead sponsorship position. Being the first season that we had truly focussed on sustainability, we wanted to shout about it and make our fans and players aware of what we stood for as a club. In addition to the front of shirt position, our Net Zero pledge featured on LED boards around the ground, and on our team bus.
In an effort to provide a spearhead to our sustainability work, each year we host a Sustainability Match. This allows us to undertake trials within the stadium to reduce emissions, but also to provide extra sustainability-themed fan activations. Last season, for example, I gave a speech to hundreds of children in the Fan Zone, alongside Toby Gregory (founder of The Plastic Pledge, who are one of Desert Vipers’ partners), and we ran our sustainability-themed games that we take to schools in Dubai as part of our Awards-Nominated Schools Programme.
Going forwards, we have set up a dedicated sustainability site, and are in the process of creating separate channels to further allow us the opportunity to expand on our sustainability work. We will still be using the main site and channels to keep fans updated on key milestones, and having a ‘green takeover’ during the week of the Sustainability Match, but the channels allow us the opportunity to show more of the great work we are doing in this area, and engage with more fans in the process.
