Nature and Motor Sport: FIA hosts third Sustainable Innovation Series event in Valencia, Spain 

The FIA hosted its third Sustainable Innovation Series event at the 2024 FIA Motorsport Games in Valencia, Spain. The event, entitled ‘Nature and Motor Sport’, focused on how sport stakeholders can promote and preserve biodiversity for the future. 

Over the course of the two-hour long session, Sky News UK presenter and sustainability champion David Garrido welcomed eleven speakers from the worlds of sport and sustainability.  

Director General for Sports of the Government of Valencian Community Luis Cervera Torres welcomed the audience highlighting the importance of associating major sport events such as the FIA Motorsport Games, with platforms for discussions on innovation, technology and sustainability. 

President of the FIA Senate and of the Real Automóvil Club de España Carmelo Sanz de Barros then emphasised the distinctive position that the FIA holds in the sustainability world by saying, “we represent millions of road users and we have an unparalleled reach and unique ability to drive sustainability across a wide variety of geographies and communities”.  

FIA Vice President for Sport – Europe and President of the Real Federación Española de Automovilismo continued highlighting the special relationship between biodiversity and motor sport. “When we go to races and events, we can immediately see the importance of the natural world,” he said. “Biodiversity is more than just a checklist item,” he added. 

The audience then heard from FIA Director of Sustainability and D&I Sara Mariani and IUCN’s Sports for Nature Programme Leader Meredith McCurdy, talking about how the sports community can raise awareness on the need to protect nature and take action to measure and mitigate its impact on biodiversity.  

During the talk, Meredith presented the Sports for Nature Framework and how it guides sport organisations all over the world in reducing their impact on nature. She pointed out that “We talked about nature being our playground, nature being our provider, but nature can also be our protector,” supporting human life and activity, while also helping us to tackle some of the impacts of climate change. Mariani said that this was one of the key reasons why the FIA had now committed to tackling “the triple planetary crisis.” As a mark of this commitment, FIA Senate President Carmelo Sanz de Barros joined them on stage to sign the IUCN’s Sport for Nature framework. Mariani stated about the signing, “I hope that it will send a strong signal that the governing body of motor sport is committed to acting upon its impact on nature,” and explained that the Federation had started assessing the impact of motor sport operations on biodiversity with the aim to adopt a thorough action plan. 

“Sustainability is right at the centre of everything we do”, then declared Silverstone Circuit’s Head of Business Sustainability who delivered a keynote on the tremendous progress the circuit has made since the adoption of its Shift to Zero strategy in 2022. Bazire highlighted some of the initiatives taken to increase recycling, raise awareness on environmental impact and decrease carbon emissions such as the creation of a ‘zero zone’ in the fan zone or a transportation plan encouraging train and shuttle use to reduce the number of cars coming to the circuit. Thanks to these efforts, Silverstone achieved the three-star level of the FIA Environmental Accreditation Programme last year, and was recently named the third most sustainable circuit worldwide by the Sustainable Motorsports Index. Bazire also announced that the circuit will strengthen its commitment by starting a biodiversity audit with the National Trust. 

The discussion continued with Spain SailGP Team CEO Antonio Alquézar and Real Betis Foundation General Manager Rafael Muela Pastor emphasising efforts to promote and preserve biodiversity in other sporting disciplines. For SailGP, this mission is key, as Alquézar highlighted, “We race on the sea. The environment is our playground. Our engine is the wind. For us, looking at how we can protect and preserve these environments is key.” He then described how Spain SailGP Team is working to win the Impact League, a competition that runs alongside the main races of SailGP and in which team score points based on their environmental and social impact performance. As an example of how different sports’ actions can crossover, Muela Pastor presented the Real Betis Balompié Foundation’s initiative to tackle ocean pollution that relies on making seats for its stadium out of collected abandoned fish nets. He then explained how they are leveraging the transformative power of sport to raise awareness among their fans. “When you touch the hearts of the people, you have the power to mobilise them, to increase their knowledge about what is happening in the world, what is happening with climate,” he said. 

The day’s final panel gathered Extreme E Director of impact Julia Wall-Clarke, and Extreme E and FIA World Rallycross Driver Klara Andersson, for a discussion about the discipline’s efforts to ‘race without a trace’. Extreme E carries out extensive sustainability work alongside a board of scientific advisors, who help leadership to reduce emissions, organise legacy trips, and select and protect suitable race venues around the world. Wall-Clarke argued that this kind of approach was essential, because “We’re not the experts — our goal is to align with the most credentialed, the most authentic voices in sustainability.” Klara agreed – and pointed out that her experiences carrying out legacy trips had given her eye-opening insights into the extent and enormity of global climate change. She mentioned how rewarding it was for her to drive wit h a purpose. “If I can do what I love, which is to race cars, in a more sustainable way and use my voice to tell a message and inspire someone, then I feel like that inspires me to do even better on the track,” she said. 

FIA General Manager Alberto Villarreal closed the session: “As a community of motor sport and mobility leaders, we have a unique opportunity to lead by example. By using our platform and our voice, we can actively contribute to the protection of nature,” he said. “The opportunity to innovate and champion nature-positive solutions is very real”, he concluded.