“Sustainability has to be an underlying principle for us, whether we are viewing it from the perspective of profit, people and planet, as the three are inextricably linked”: Brian Facer, CEO of British Cycling, Annual Report 2021-22
October 10 started like any old Monday in the office at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester. Staff checked emails, chatted about the weekend with colleagues or grabbed coffees. At nine-thirty, they logged into the all-staff weekly Teams call.
Brian Facer, the CEO of British Cycling, was delivering one of his regular, pre-prepared updates. Facer habitually concludes them by asking “Any questions?… Three, two, one. OK, goodbye!” This time, the pause was especially brief after dropping his bombshell: Shell UK were to be Official Partners of the governing body. There had been prior discussions of a deal internally, but it was a surprise to the 100-plus staff on the call. A group of senior management at British Cycling had only been informed three days earlier.
Four hours later, British Cycling press release went out. The focus was on how Shell can support Great Britain’s cyclists and para-cyclists through sharing world-class innovation and expertise, accelerating British Cycling’s path to net zero and helping more, and wider groups of, people to ride. Shell’s track record and reputation – the oil-coated elephant in the room, if you will – was not addressed.
A day of public shellacking for the governing body ensued. It was a Black Monday for British Cycling’s social media team, dealing with over 2,800 quote tweets, the majority negative. A sample of the responses: “Baffled.” “Ethically abominable.” “Absurd.” “Partnering a fossil fuel company in an accelerant your path to net zero? Is this satire?”
It’s outwardly incongruous. Shell: a global oil and gas multinational, who have profited from burning fossil fuels, been responsible for damaging oil spills and plan to spend $46bn on expanding their oil and fossil gas investments into 2030, according to one report. British Cycling: an organisation representing approximately 145,000 members at all levels who put a premium on a zero-emission form of transport.
Several environmental organisations decried it as greenwashing. “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,” a statement from Friends of the Earth read.
This is the story of why a deal with Shell was…
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