The British & Irish Lions

The Environmental Cost of Touring and Events

As a touring team and live events organisation, the Lions travel internationally every four years, and now every two years, and host large scale matches that bring together thousands of fans. This combination of extensive air travel, logistics, and on the ground activations creates a naturally high environmental footprint. The result is not only significant carbon emissions from both team operations and fan travel but also increased localised impact, including energy use, waste generation, and resource consumption at event sites.

Facing the Unknowns

When we began shaping our impact initiative in early 2022, we were met with a wide range of unknowns. We had limited clarity around how to measure carbon emissions, what to include in the scope of reporting, and how to design an effective impact program. To move forward, we broke our operations into three distinct areas: standard business operations, tour operations, and fan travel. This structure helped us build a meaningful baseline and laid the foundation for deeper engagement with our internal teams, commercial partners, and fans.

Broadening Our Impact Vision

While our current focus has been on measuring and offsetting emissions, we are now actively shaping a broader impact strategy. This includes engaging with charity partners on social and environmental initiatives beyond carbon. We view this Tour as the first step toward a longer term legacy, with the 2029 Tour expected to reflect a deeper and wider impact framework.