The Desert Vipers cricket team’s annual Sustainability Match will take place on Sunday December the 14th, at the Dubai International Stadium.
While the team is already playing in green kit all season to underline their commitment to sustainability as a core brand value, this season fans are in for a surprise as the players will walk out in a jersey specially conceived for the annual sustainability contest.
Inspired by work from Professor Miles Richardson from the University of Derby, the Sustainability Match jersey features the ‘Biodiversity Stripes’. Each stripe shows global wildlife populations in a given year: green shows more wildlife and the gradual fading to grey shows wildlife decline.
This jersey is designed to highlight how, over the last 50 years, global wildlife populations have declined by 73%. The desired message is a wider one though, which is highly relevant to not just cricket but all sports: healthy ecosystems regulate heat, water, and soil, all of which are essential to sport.
Without nature there is no sport.
This kit is produced in the UAE by the team’s kit partners PALMFIT from 100 percent recycled materials and will later be turned into a special piece of artwork.
Phil Oliver, Desert Vipers CEO, said he was proud of the team’s sustainability agenda, and added that the specially designed kit was another innovative move to draw attention to an important issue.
“By wearing a special kit featuring the Biodiversity Stripes at our Sustainability Match in front of millions of TV viewers, we aim to highlight the decline in biodiversity over time, and urge action to reverse the trend,” he said.
“We have greatly reduced our impact on nature in recent seasons and now invite others to take action with us.
“Cricket and nature are inherently connected, and at Desert Vipers, we want to be proactive in playing for people and the planet – this kit is a visual representation of that commitment.”
Professor Miles Richardson, Professor of Nature Connectedness at the University of Derby and Creator of the Biodiversity Stripes, added: “The Global Biodiversity Stripes provide a visual representation of the loss of biodiversity since 1970. The higher levels of biodiversity are coloured bright green. Lower levels move through yellow to darker greys with greater declines.
“The loss of wildlife is also a loss of vibrancy and colour, as our green world becomes grey. As a professional cricket franchise with an enormous reach, and one that contains a group of species in its name, I am delighted that Desert Vipers will be wearing the stripes at their Sustainability Match on the 14th of December.
“I hope that the kit captures people’s attention and imagination and encourages viewers to take a moment to notice the good things in nature each day. As that is a first step we can all take to help reverse the decline in biodiversity.”
Jana Janotova, Senior Programme Coordinator, Sports for Nature at International Union for Conservation of Nature, further added: “Desert Vipers have once again delivered an impactful awareness-raising initiative for nature – this time using their kit as a platform to tell the story of the global decline of nature.
“One of the four Sports for Nature Framework principles is to educate and inspire positive action for nature across and beyond sport, which this initiative does brilliantly. I am looking forward to seeing it in action on the TV, alongside millions of viewers.”
While the Desert Vipers continue their sustainability work through the year, this match provides a platform for nature and tests new innovations to reduce the environmental impact of cricket matches.
On December the 14th the Crickmas fan zone at the Dubai International Stadium will be taken over by Desert Vipers through a series of fun activations, all geared towards drawing participation from visitors.
The goal is to educate fans of the various ways around how they can play their part to protect and restore nature, while also revealing some of the innovative green practices in sport that have been adopted by the Desert Vipers.
In the fan zone, Middlesex University Dubai will hand out upcycled fan giveaways that have been created from last season’s Desert Vipers kit.
Bright Bites, a Partner who produces healthy snacks for children, will be handing out some of their best products to the young visitors on Sunday.
RAW Coffee Company, the team’s Official Coffee Partner, have put together a unique offering of a cycle-to-charge activation – which will be a fun experiential activity for visitors.
The Vipers’ elite Talent Pathway Programme coaches will be at the fan zone conducting action-packed cricket coaching sessions, showing the team’s deep commitment to engaging with the community and offering a pathway to talented local athletes in the UAE.
The coaches will also be running some exciting sustainability-themed mini-games as part of the aim to educate and involve our younger fans.
About the Desert Vipers Sustainability Initiatives:
The Desert Vipers are the first cricket franchise to record and make public their carbon footprint and, through a series of partnerships and key initiatives, have succeeded in reducing their carbon footprint by 20 percent since Season 1 of the DP World ILT20. People and Planet Report
They are the first cricket team to eliminate single-use plastic water bottles from the team environment, doing so in Season 2 through their partnership with Bluewater, the suppliers of water filtration systems.
This has helped cut the use of 14,400 single-use plastic bottles each season.
Another key innovation has been the switch to a local kit supplier PALMFIT for their match and training apparel, in Season 3, produced with 100 percent recycled kit.
In addition, the Desert Vipers have installed Cleaner Seas’ microfibre filters at their Team Hotel’s washing machines at JA Resorts to capture microfibres and microplastics released during washing and prevent them from polluting our oceans.
The Vipers have also partnered with local and international charities to supply leftover kit at the end of the season to those in need. The team has switched to sunglasses from Coral Eyewear made from recycled ocean plastic and are offsetting 100 percent of Season 4’s emissions in partnership with well-regarded climate-financing specialists Vuelta Carbon.
