During the 3rd week of August, SailGP arrived in Copenhagen to give Nordic sailing fans a mind-blowing experience. Cognizant is the Official Digital Transformation Partner of this elite global racing championship, a competition that is about speed as well as sustainability.
SailGP is the world’s fastest sailing competition. Nine national teams fight against each other on ultra-technical, foiling F50 catamarans that reach speed of around 100 km/hour. Since the boats are powered by the wind, clean oceans and clean energy is top of mind to the organizers and something they want to raise awareness around.
The competition stands out: Apart from winning the races by sailing fast, the national teams are now also competing in sustainability with the recently installed “Impact League – a podium for the planet”. This is the first time a sports organization rewards athletes and teams for positive environmental actions. By independently measuring and auditing every aspect of sustainability, the Impact League ensures that SailGP and its teams maximize their efforts, ensuring genuine systematic change and crafting the new “sustainable-normal”.
A set of sustainability criteria
How does it work then? SailGP’s Impact League has a set of sustainability criteria to operate against with each team awarded points based on its fulfillment of these criteria. The competition criteria range from:
• Pioneering new technologies focusing on clean energy solutions
• Removing all single-use plastics
• Diversity and inclusion
• Using the team’s voice for good.
A second leaderboard has been created to monitor the performance of the sailing teams, with each team’s score at each event being added to the overall Impact League leaderboard. At the end of the season, there are two podiums, with the winner of the Impact League crowned alongside the Season Champion and earning funding for its purpose partner, who supports and advises them throughout the season and is visible on the team’s livery.
Cognizant engineers change
As the first carbon-neutral championship, SailGP is a true advocate for actions when it comes to sustainability. How does Cognizant’s expertise add to all this? As the Official Digital Transformation Partner, Cognizant is using data-driven insights to deliver intuitive, personalized fan experiences with SailGP. You can learn more about how we collaborate in this case study.
However, Cognizant’s engineering principles and solutions can also be applied to sustainability strategy and execution, addressing decarbonization, reduced emissions and other sustainability goals. Our services include roadmap development, benchmarking, goal-setting, and data and analytics support for KPIs, something you can learn more about at our dedicated sustainability services’ web.