Stanford Hosts Athletics Focused Retreat to Elevate Collegiate Perspectives

Stanford is teaming up with the Green Sports Alliance (GSA), a leading hub for environmental and social responsibility across the global sports sector, to help shape the future of sustainability in athletics and uplift the role higher education institutions can play in making an impact in this space. As part of a new working group, Stanford is helping to strategize with GSA around how to make collegiate perspectives more central and effective, and creating pathways to translate big picture sustainability ideas and policies into real action across 400 athletic member organizations.

As part of Stanford’s involvement with GSA, the university hosted a GSA board retreat on campus this fall quarter. Dr. Suki Hoagland, lecturer with the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, is a GSA board member and shared that the meeting was very successful, with potential outcomes including plans to create a collegiate conference at the annual GSA Summit and include collegiate case studies to highlight successes in GSA Playbooks. 

The GSA also hosted a behind-the-scenes sustainability tour at the Chase Center, home of the Golden State Warriors, that provided an opportunity for members to get an inside view to learn from sustainability operations at this major venue. Sam Lubow, Associate Director of Climate Action with the Office of Sustainability who had the opportunity to attend the tour, said “The Green Sports Alliance demonstrates that sporting events can be an incredible platform to both celebrate and promote sustainable solutions to a wide audience. The Chase Center tour highlighted how Bay Area arenas are stepping up as leaders in this space, showing that sustainability can be seamlessly integrated into world-class venues while inspiring fans and communities alike.” Through these opportunities to connect with global athletic sustainability leaders, Stanford is helping to build momentum for the future of sustainability in sports and deepening the role universities can play in supporting environmental responsibility in athletics.