Products of Change and the Federation of Sports and Play Associations (FSPA) held the first member meeting of the two organisations’ new partnership. The collaboration, announced in January, enables FSPA’s members to utilise educational resources and bespoke consultation via the POC membership and platform, to ensure the Sports and Play industry is ready for what’s to come.

Nick Palmer, FSPA CEO, commented on the partnership, “We are well aware that there are many challenges that businesses are facing with the current landscape, and there is more to come that our members may not even know about. We want to make sure that they are equipped ahead of upcoming regulations.”

The FSPA consists of:

• Association of Play Industries (API), which represents the manufacturers, installers, and suppliers of play equipment and surfacing;
• Association of Professional Sales Agents (APSA), formed to represent and promote sales agents in all sectors of the sports industry;
• British Golf Industry Association (BGIA), representing UK manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors of golf products and services;
• Sporting Goods Industry Association (SGiA), which represents UK manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors of sporting goods and apparel and those who supply a service to the sports industry;
• Sports and Physical Education Association (SPE), representing companies engaged in the supply and installation of sports hall, games, fitness, and gymnasium equipment.

Mark Hammersley, chair of of the SGiA, opened the meeting, and acknowledges that a key working area for the FSPA going forward is sustainable development, which is why they partnered with Products of Change.

Helena Mansell-Stopher, founder and CEO of POC then introduced herself, along with the rest of the team, including James George – a POC advisor who will be working closely with the FSPA throughout the partnership – as well as Nicola Webster, community manager, and Kathryn Brand, editor.

“POC is here to provide our members with expert support in the area of sustainable development. We are here to help you on your journey to environmental sustainability and be a resource for you to lean on,” said Helena.

Then Helena ran through an overview of POC, what we are working on, what we have coming up this year, and walked the attendees through the POC website and Hub, showing them where to find useful resources and pages for their reference.

James then took over and explained that he will be setting up groups and meetings for particular topics of interest, and the most crucial part is understanding what those are from FSPA members. So, James had put together a Menti Meter interactive presentation, to talk through certain topics and allow attendees to feed back their sticking points for POC to address.

The first question asked to the audience was: What is the first thing that jumps into your mind when you think about sustainability and your business?

Some of the recurring themes in the responses for this were packaging, legislation, and cost. James explained that POC has its Packaging Guide that is about the launch, as well as other documents and resources on the website to inform on the issue of packaging. Likewise, with legislation, there have been a lot of very recent changes, and POC is setting up webinars to address this. When it comes to cost, James said that the perception is very much that to do something sustainably, it costs more, but in the broader picture, when EPR taxes and such are paid for not using sustainable materials, the saving can be redirected.

Next up: What is your biggest barrier to exploring these topics further?

Again, cost came up, as well as time and knowledge, to which James referred back to the POC online educational modules that break up the base knowledge into small and manageable chunks. We are working to bring organisations together as we are all trying to solve the same problems, said James.

The final question was: What would be most useful to you in these sessions?

The answers to this came up as legislation updates, what peers are doing, quick wins, and what to focus on. These are all topics and responses that James will take away to build the programme for the coming year with the FSPA members.

This new group of FSPA members, joins POC’s existing sporting group, which includes the likes of Tottenham Hotspur FC, Liverpool FC, Chelsea FC, the British Olympic Association and more. The sporting goods industry is made up of brands, retailers and licensors, just like the other industries POC works with; we are all sharing the same challenges, and through POC’s network we can continue to tackle them as a collective.