UK-based B2B esports events and media company Esports Insider (ESI) has announced a partnership with Betclic Apogee, who call themselves ‘the world’s first carbon neutral esports team’.
The deal will see ESI join forces with the Portugal-based esports org and the first esports team with zero carbon emissions certification to help develop its ‘Carbon Neutral Collective’ initiative.
A roundtable session at ESI London next month will see key stakeholders and decision makers – including esports tournament operators and teams – get together to collectively discuss what can be done to reduce the industry’s carbon footprint, with ‘the aim of no judgement and zero expectations’.
This first edition will be by invitation only and will take place on September 7th 2022 at The Glowbox at Boxpark Wembley alongside and as a part of ESI London 2022.
ESI London is an esports industry festival taking place between September 5th and 7th and featuring a mix of panels and networking opportunities for members of the industry.
The roundtable session will include a short presentation from Goncalo Brandeiro, founder at Betclic Apogee, about the team’s efforts on achieving a carbon neutral status, why they’ve done it, as well as the commercial value of sustainability.
Following a talk by a guest speaker, the core part of the ‘Carbon Neutral Collective’ will focus on offering a chance for learning from industry peers, opening a discussion on the subject of carbon neutrality, with a view to seeing what the challenges are across the board in the industry and how they might be overcome.
“This first carbon neutral roundtable is an informational and honest behind closed doors discussion between key esports stakeholders. No judgements and no guilt tripping, we want to see what the challenges are for operators in esports, see what the appetite is for some collective group action and see what might be possible.”
Sam Cooke, Esports Insider
Sam Cooke, MD and co-founder at Esports Insider, said: “In the video games space there’ve been some fantastic environmentally friendly focused initiatives such as the Green Game Jam, but to my knowledge we’ve not really seen much of this in the esports space specifically, outside of some great FlyQuest campaigns of course.
“This first carbon neutral roundtable is an informational and honest behind closed doors discussion between key esports stakeholders. No judgements and absolutely no guilt tripping, we want to see what the challenges are for operators in esports, see what the appetite is for some collective group action and see what might be possible. I’m optimistic that this could be the start of something quite powerful and long term!”
Goncalo Brandeiro, founder at Betclic Apogee, added: “This partnership with Esports Insider represents an extremely important step in the right direction: together – teams, industry, media and the public we must find a new path to the planet. I’m sure the debate now scheduled is the first step towards achieving a great mobilisation of the community.
“At Betclic Apogee we are committed to setting an example and showing that it is possible, through small changes, to be more in harmony with the environment. Our Carbon Neutral certification showed us our impact and it was a decisive turning point to establish a manifesto that can be followed by other teams.”
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Esports News UK is a media partner of ESI London
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
