The sports industry generally lags behind other sectors when it comes to action on sustainability initiatives such as achieving net zero carbon emissions, however, companies in the motorsport space have the most ambitious decarbonisation targets of all those in the wider sports industry and are proactively tackling the issue to work towards net zero.
Here are a few of the ways they are doing this.
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Logistics in Formula 1 is the main contributor to carbon emissions during a season
The very nature of motorsport means it is essential that federations, companies, and teams lead the way in decarbonisation of their operations. For obvious reasons, a sport in which dozens of petroleum-fuelled vehicles race around a circuit is going to attract plenty of sustainability-related attention.
However, emissions don’t always come from the expected sources. Using Formula 1 as an example, its 2019 sustainability report showed that only 0.7% of the 256,000 tons of CO₂ emissions produced during a season come from power units during races. In fact, F1 cars have been powered by hybrid engines since 2013, helping to reduce on-track emissions.
The bulk of the carbon footprint from an F1 season comes from emissions from air, sea, and road transportation, with logistics accounting for 45% of CO₂ produced each year. The ten teams in F1 have a huge amount of personnel and equipment, as well as the cars themselves, to ship around the world to each race, causing travel emissions to stack up significantly.
The production of the cars at team factories and facilities is also somewhat carbon-intensive, accounting for 19.3% of the total carbon footprint.
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By GlobalDataF1 and its teams are attempting decarbonisation of logistics using alternative fuels
Formula 1 used DHL’s fleet of biofuel-powered trucks to reduce carbon emissions by an average of 83% during the European leg of the 2023 season. Biofuels are made from biomass such as sugar cane, waste vegetable oils, and animal fats. They are considered to have a lower carbon footprint because they emit CO₂ that was recently in the atmosphere. Across the nine European rounds, 18 trucks were powered by HVO100, a second-generation biofuel, and travelled more than 10,000 km, transporting an average of 300 tons of freight per race.
Mercedes became the first of F1’s member teams to implement a similar strategy during the same segment of the 2024 season. For the nine European races held between May and August, the team’s fleet of freight trucks was powered by HVO100. The 9,000-10,000 km covered by each truck contributed to an 89% emissions reduction overall.
Aside from the new regulation dictating that all cars on track will be powered by 100% sustainable fuels from 2026, F1 is also investing in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to move further towards decarbonisation in its logistics.
SAF is an alternative fuel made from renewable biomass and waste resources, with a considerably smaller carbon footprint than petroleum-based jet fuel and similar performance levels. CO₂ emissions are reduced by up to 80% because the CO₂ absorbed by the biomass is recycled, rather than emitting carbon that had previously been locked away, as petroleum-based fuels do.
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