British Cycling Under Fire for Accepting Shell Sponsorship Dollars
British Cycling has made headlines this week for all the wrong reasons, after the announcement of Shell as a new sponsor has gone over very poorly, to put it mildly. With environmental groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth condemning the sponsorship and outlets from BBC to CNN calling out Shell’s ‘sportswashing’/‘greenwashing’ technique, the partnership announcement clearly hasn’t gone as smoothly as British Cycling or Shell may have hoped.
Sportswashing, similar greenwashing, is when a company uses a sports team to improve their reputation. Sponsoring a cycling program is arguably both, since cycling is both a professional sport and an eco-friendly activity that—let’s be a bit biased here—can save the world.
The first hard yikes comes from the fact that British Cycling’s press release about the partnership focused on their commitment to Net Zero, lowering their carbon footprint.
“We’re looking forward to working alongside Shell UK over the rest of this decade to widen access to the sport, support our elite riders and help our organisation and sport take important steps towards net zero – things we know our members are incredibly passionate about," Brian Facer, CEO of British Cycling, said.
How an oil company is going to help reach net zero, well, that's a good question!
“The partnership reflects the shared ambitions of Shell UK and British Cycling to get to net zero in the UK as well as encouraging low and zero-carbon forms of transport such as cycling and electric vehicles," David Bunch, Shell UK Country Chair, explains. “Working together we can deliver real change for people right across the country, from different walks of life, and also apply Shell’s world-leading lubricant technology to support the Great Britain Cycling Team in their quest for gold at the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
That clears it up, right?
While it’s worth noting that the company’s dollars will help fund better programming for disabled riders at community and professional levels, it’s been met with a lot of criticism.
Friends of the Earth campaigner Jamie Peters told the BBC, "Cycling is the epitome of environmentally friendly travel. It’s deeply disappointing that UK Cycling could think it’s appropriate to partner with a fossil fuel giant... Shell is continuing to invest billions in oil and gas projects, while using cynical PR initiatives like this partnership to attempt to greenwash its harmful activities."
“The idea of Shell helping British Cycling reach net zero is as absurd as beef farmers advising lettuce farmers on how to go vegan," Greenpeace UK policy director Doug Parr added (via CNN). CNN also noted that Shell is one of the companies recently called out for marketing and campaigning with climate positive messaging, but not backing it up with consistent actions.
The partnership was reportedly met with a lot of internal upset as well. Sport journalist Andy McGrath tweeted, " My understanding is that numerous British Cycling staff and management were vociferously against Shell sponsorship deal and it went ahead anyway. The move could also affect future funding amount from UK Sport and Sport England too."
Cycling Twitter is also unsurprisingly pissed. British Cycling’s announcement has garnered more than 1500 quote retweets, and at a glance... Very few are applauding the partnership. We’ll leave it at that.
Now, we know that professional cycling is certainly not the most ‘green’ activity, so some are arguing that a governing body like British Cycling isn’t environmentally friendly in the first place. But they should be—and more races are starting to focus on lowering their carbon footprint. So even if British Cycling in its current iteration isn’t the greenest that it can be, it certainly shouldn’t be moving to effectively increase its carbon footprint by bringing on big oil sponsors.
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