Legacy auto using sports sponsorship to greenwash image. Source: Badvertising
A new report has found that major car brands, including Toyota and BMW, are spending $4.5 billion sports advertising to help greenwash their image – despite some of them lobbying against strong climate action at the same time. The report, titled
Dangerous Driving: why sport should drop sponsorship from major polluters,
analyses why petrol and diesel car makers have more than tripled their sports sponsorship in the last five years. Authored by the think-tank New Weather Institute and the Badvertising campaign, the report says that sport has become a primary way for global car makers to promote their “green” credentials, even when they are not so green. The report found that Toyota and BMW have over 120 active partnerships and sponsorships across at least 23 different sports with many of the deals centred around their sustainability claims. Both Toyota and BMW, for instance, pay sponsorships to be key “sustainability” partners at the same time as they lobbied to dilute and prevent new EU emissions regulations. Toyota also pays to be the International Olympic Committee’s key partner concerning sustainable mobility solutions. Despite spending big on marketing its so called green credentials, Toyota plans to sell a 110 million ICE vehicles by 2040, resulting in an estimated 7.4 billion tonnes of CO2. The report also notes that alongside climate-damaging carbon emissions, ICE vehicles also cause lethal air pollution, road traffic deaths and injuries, and maintain sedentary lifestyles, all threats to sport, athletes and fans.
Big polluters targeting sports marketing because of strong emotional connections
The report says that petrol and diesel car manufacturers focus on sports sponsorship to leverage the strong emotional connection many people have with sports, yet sports people and the industry itself are heavily exposed to the impacts of global warming.
Many of the most direct climate impacts on sport fall under three core and connected themes: 1) disruption to play; 2) health of participants and spectators; and 3) declining participation.
Of even greater concern is the risks posed to health when organisers don’t pay sufficient heed to extreme conditions. Athletes are increasingly facing conditions that their physiologies cannot adapt to, and air pollution is impacting athletes’ lung function and posing severe health impacts to sports fans and communities.
In some sense, athletes are the canaries in the coal mine when it comes to humanities’ ability to adapt to a warmer and more unpredictable climate.
The report notes that UK codes for advertising state that advertising must not encourage behaviour “grossly prejudicial” to the protection of the environment.
“Promotional sponsorships with Toyota and BMW, given only the scale of their emissions contributing to global heating, can reasonably be considered to contravene this rule and such deals, certainly within the world of sport, should be ended,” says the report.
Toyota ranked as biggest opponent of strong climate action
Toyota has been independently ranked as the most obstructive car company in the world when it comes to lobbying against climate policy, and has been ranked third most obstructive company overall, behind fossil fuel majors ExxonMobil and Chevron.
Among the ten biggest car brands of 2021, Toyota has the “the most sponsorship deals by an automotive brand globally” including the largest number of active sports sponsorship deals, and the highest market share (10.5%). Including both past and present deals, at least 23 different sports are covered by the car maker’s sponsorship deals.
In a single year, 2021, Toyota sold 10,383,548 internal combustion engined (ICE) vehicles that rely on fossil fuels. Over their lifetime, these vehicles will emit over 700 million tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of 190 coal-fired power stations running for an entire year.
By 2040, Toyota is planning to sell 110 million ICE vehicles. The total emissions from these vehicles over their lifetime will be in the region of 7.4 billion tonnes of CO2, which is equivalent to running more than 2,000 coal-fired power plants for an entire year.
Toyota’s projected sales exceed the 1.5°C-compatible volume by 55 to 71 million ICE vehicles or, in other words, 144 to 184 percent.
Air pollution is set to become the overall leading cause of premature death by 2050 according to the OECD, claiming 3.6 million lives a year. Other estimates already put the toll of premature deaths due to pollution from burning fossil fuels at over eight million per year.
Toyota greenwashing in Australian sports
The report provides details on global ICE vehicle sports sponsorship deals including Australian sports. The Australian Football League (AFL) is Australia’s most watched sport. The AFL’s has an average crowd attendance of 33,600.
The AFL along with the National Rugby League, Cricket Australia and Rugby Australia generate $188.5 million in sponsorship revenue across 155 deals, with Toyota being the biggest spender.
In 2022 a ruling by the Federal Court on a class action about faulty Toyota diesel filters exposed the car maker to fines potentially totalling $2 billion. Later in 2022 another class action was brought in Australia against the car maker alleging ‘emissions cheating’ on nearly 500,000 vehicles.
In March 2023, Toyota was reported to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for alleged misleading claims about the environmental performance of its vehicles and climate targets. If ruled against, the company could face further fines of $50 million.
The partnership between the AFL and Toyota is almost 20 years old and is the largest sports sponsorship deal in Australian history. The extension of the sponsorship deal will take the total spend to $74 million.
Toyota AFL sponsorship
Recommendations. Sport should sever ties with big polluters
The report makes the case for why sport must move beyond partnering with these companies – just as it did with tobacco products over the last half century.
- It is time to drive high-carbon sponsors and partners out of sport: Ending the option for high-carbon companies to use sport as a billboard to promote polluting products and lifestyles will send a strong message that sport is as serious about the climate emergency as it it about its own future and the health and wellbeing of its athletes and fans. At a time when humanity urgently needs to reduce global emissions, sport should sever its ties with those companies that are disproportionately responsible for pushing humanity closer to the climate cliff edge.
- Sport should align its commercial partnerships with those companies and organisations that are actively building a world in which sport can thrive: Sport must think ahead and plan for many seasons to come, that means aligning its commercial practices and sponsorship deals with its own long term survival. Only companies that are implementing a scientifically credible plan aligned to the 1.5°C climate target are compatible with a world in which the future of sport is not threatened. This is not solely about the climate impact of high-carbon sponsors, but health issues such as air pollution which every year are a matter of life and death for millions including those who play and enjoy watching sport.
Keyword: Petrol and diesel carmakers spend $4.5 billion on sport sponsorship, much of it greenwash