LONDON, June 20, 2023 (ATP Press Release)
ATP and Infosys have unlocked a new phase in tennis’ sustainability journey with the launch of Carbon Tracker, a first-of-its-kind app enabling players to track and mitigate travel emissions on Tour.
With hundreds of professional players travelling to more than 250 events in 50 countries across the ATP Tour and Challenger Tour each season, travel represents a significant part of players’ overall carbon emissions. Addressing this impact has become the top sustainability priority under ATP Serves, in line with ATP’s commitment to UN Sports for Climate Action.
Developed in collaboration with Infosys, Digital Innovation partner of the ATP Tour, Carbon Tracker is a first-of-its kind app in professional sports. It enables players to track their travel to tournaments across the season, understand their emissions profile, make more conscious travel decisions, and mitigate their impact by purchasing verified carbon credits via Gold Standard, a leading sustainable development standard and climate action partner of the ATP.
The app’s long-term ambition is to inspire greener travel on Tour. It features a dashboard that presents players with a holistic view of their emissions across multiple seasons – enabling deeper understanding and analysis of travel choices. This is supplemented with resources and quizzes to educate players on sustainable practices and environmental advocacy.
As a symbol of their commitment and leadership, Carbon Tracker will introduce a Green Badge that players can earn at the end of each season, to be displayed across their profile and rankings pages on ATPTour.com.
Adding to the stakes, the Top 3 players on the in-app leaderboard at the end of the 2023 season will be eligible to win a $100,000 prize pool. This will be distributed in the form of donations to environmental sustainability charities of players’ choice.
Top ATP players Cameron Norrie, Andrey Rublev, Emil Ruusuvuori and Dominic Thiem have kicked off proceedings by pledging to track and offset 100 per cent of their tournament travel emissions in 2023.
TP Player Cameron Norrie said: “Travel is an unavoidable part of what we do. But as players we’re also conscious of the responsibility we have to take action and show climate leadership. This is something close to my heart and it’s been incredible to see this movement gain momentum in tennis. Carbon Tracker is a great first step to onboard more players, mitigate our impact, and keep this important conversation top of mind. I’m excited to see where this leads.”
ATP Player Dominic Thiem said: “As a sport I believe it’s our collective responsibility to contribute towards the well-being of our planet. It’s about recognising and taking on the biggest sources of our impact. The ATP Carbon Tracker app makes it simple to monitor travel on Tour and empowers us as players to take proactive measures. I’m grateful for the opportunity to lead on this initiative and encourage as many players as possible to get involved.”
ATP CEO Massimo Calvelli said: “Tennis is on a mission to Net Zero and like many sports, our travel footprint is our biggest challenge. ATP’s new Carbon Tracker makes it simple for players to join that journey, mitigating their impact today and inspiring greener choices tomorrow. This is a story of addressing difficult problems through innovation, and we would thank our partners Infosys for their collaboration and commitment to the project. The potential of this app is massive and we’re just getting started.”
Infosys Chief Marketing Officer Sumit Virmani said: “The synergy between Infosys and ATP has resulted in a very action-oriented innovation which sensitizes the need for energy transition in sports. In recent times, we have witnessed a multitude of digital sustainability platforms that are enabling organisations pave their way to Net Zero emissions. Together with ATP, we will strive to make tennis carbon conscious as a sport. As we drive towards a hyperconnected economy, it is imperative for us to focus on dynamically driving carbon consciousness in an innovative, sustainable, and efficient manner.”
Gold Standard CEO Margaret Kim said: “It is inspiring to see tennis leading the way towards a more sustainable sporting culture. Encouraging players to purchase Gold Standard-certified credits means they will be directly funding climate change projects that not only reduce carbon emissions, but also create many other sustainable development benefits for communities that need it most. We are excited to have ATP as a Gold Standard climate action supporter and look forward to collaborating further along the journey towards Net Zero.”
Carbon Tracker will be accessible exclusively through PlayerZone, the existing player website and mobile app launched by Infosys and ATP in 2016.
