Advantage Earth: Tennis Takes the Next Step Towards Net Zero With ATP’s Innovative New Tool

It’s called Carbon Tracker, and it’s the new app from the ATP Tour developed to reduce emissions on the pro tennis circuit. Players can track their travel from tournament to tournament through the app, developed in partnership with Infosys, and then offset their emissions through credible, certified offset programs provided by Gold Standard with the click of a button.

Facing the adverse effects of climate change, like the hottest month ever recorded in July 2023, the urgency for climate action is growing. While the focus tends to fall on heavy-emitting industries and government regulations, sport also has to play its part in reducing emissions.

“As of today, more than 120 players have used the app,” says Mark Epps, Director of Communications & Web3 at the ATP Tour. “We even have a few players who have already offset 100% of their season so far. Our goal is to get as many players as possible using Carbon Tracker.”

The app launched in June and was unveiled by tennis pros and sustainability advocates Dominic Thiem, Andrey Rublev, Cameron Norrie, and Emil Ruusuvuori.

The ATP is the governing body of men’s professional tennis. Recent Wimbledon champion, Carlos Alcaraz, is currently the top-ranked player on the ATP Tour, and all-time Grand Slam title record holder, Novak Djokovic, currently holds the second spot in the world rankings.

The Carbon Tracker app is just part of the ATP’s net-zero journey, something that started in 2021 with the signing of the UN Sports for Climate Action pledge, a collective movement that commits signatories to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040.

“On the one hand you can look at that and say, wow, that’s so ambitious, how could we ever get there?” says Epps. “But it’s been more motivating than anything because it sets a really clear target for our sport and it’s something we can speak about with players, tournaments, and fans.”

The commitment acts as one part of the ATP’s overall sustainability program, called ATP Serves, which includes organisational culture, mental health, and environmental sustainability as the ambitious areas that it strives to make a difference in.

Once the commitment to net zero was made, the next step for the ATP was to measure its emissions, establish a baseline, and identify carbon hotspots so it knew where to focus reduction efforts.

“When you look at the emissions profile of our sport, more than 90% of emissions come from one thing: travel. We know that if we want to make a credible dent in our footprint, we need to focus on travel,” explains Epps.

With this carbon hotspot identified, the ATP was able to move beyond data gathering and take concrete action on tackling their emissions. 

They identified three areas of travel: player, staff, and fan. The ATP works internally on staff travel emissions but realised that they needed to be innovative with their focus on player travel, noting that players on the ATP Tour are independent contractors, not employees, and thus could not be mandated to travel in certain ways.

“We wanted to create an app that in a very simple way allows all of our players to start becoming more conscious of their footprint and doing something about it,” explains Epps. “We wanted it to be so simple and so easy to use that we can start getting the top players involved, the wider player group involved, and begin the emissions reductions journey.”

This season, players will compete on a leaderboard in the Carbon Tracker app for a $100,000 prize pool that will donate rewards to the charity of the top three players’ choice.

The partnerships that the ATP fostered with Infosys and Gold Standard have been critical to the development of this app and their wider sustainability efforts. “I don’t think it’s possible to do it on your own,” says Epps. “Without Infosys and Gold Standard, an app like Carbon Tracker just wouldn’t be possible. Partnerships and working together are absolutely key.”

While acknowledging that carbon offsets are not perfect, and avoiding emissions in the first place is the real goal, the ATP sees it as a way to get started. By partnering with Gold Standard players can offset their travel with the click of a button in the app using a credible and certified offset program with global reach, which is important for a sport that has an equally global footprint.

Carbon Tracker is just one piece of the ATP’s sustainability puzzle and it will look to build on the successes of the app, review and revise any shortcomings they find, and adapt the app and their net-zero strategy to the evolving sustainability landscape.

Epps noted that fan travel is the major issue to address with nearly 6 million fans travelling to tennis tournaments each year, but the ATP recognises that it’s important to start with areas that fall more under its control before working outwards and bringing other emissions areas into its strategy.

If the launch of the app is successful with the players, and early indications say that it is, then maybe something similar could be in store for the fans. In the future, fans might be able to see their names on a Carbon Tracker leaderboard at tournaments alongside the likes of Alcaraz, Djokovic, and the other pros. The app is a positive example for sustainability in sport, and is an exciting step on the ATP’s commitment to net zero by 2040.