Dr Russell Seymour

Russell Seymour is a pioneer in Sustainability and Sport in the UK. With an academic background (with degrees in Ecology, Environmental Sciences and Biodiversity Management) Russell started work in the sports sector through a convoluted career path. He soon realised that the sport sector had significant environmental impacts, was being impacted by environmental changes and, importantly, had an opportunity to raise awareness as a trusted, non-partisan ambassador by using the powerful influence of sport on participants and fans. Working at Lord’s Cricket Ground as the first Sustainability Manager at a major UK sports venue, Russell integrated sustainability principles into business functions across the venue.

With this in mind, he set up BASIS (the British Association for Sustainable Sport), the UK’s trade body for sustainability and sport, in 2010, with the intention of bringing together like-minded individuals at all levels of sport, to share ideas, experiences and strategies around sustainability. Russell became Chief Executive of BASIS in 2018 and is now Executive Chair.

Russell is Senior Enterprise Fellow in the Institute of Sport Business at Loughborough University and a visiting lecturer in Event Management at the University of Greenwich. He is Principal Consultant at Seymour· Associates. He sits on the British Standards committee SCP/1 on Sustainable Performance, Consumption and Production; is a member of the ESG Committee of the England and Wales Cricket Board and is part of the Advisory Board for the Sport Ecology Group.