Can a Sherrin save the world? How Lex is kicking goals for climate change

What’s your background, Lex? How did you come to be where you are?

I’ve always been a massive football fan and North Melbourne footy club fan. It’s been a big part of my identity and community since I was a kid growing up and playing at my primary school in North Melbourne with my friends and family back in 1983. Forty years later, I still go to the footy with those same friends and now with our next generation, so I’d call myself a footy tragic. Over the last 25 years I’ve worked in the sustainability, climate change and environmental field with local governments and their communities, working on solar and renewables projects. About a year and a half ago, when this job came up to be the CEO of Footy for Climate, I thought, how can it be possible that you can combine these two and I’ve never known about it? I jumped at the opportunity and came on board.

How long has Footy for Climate existed?

In 2021, AFL Players for Climate Action was formed by Tom Campbell and Jasper Pittard, who were playing AFL footy at North Melbourne at the time. It was in the wake of the Black Summer bushfires and they were thinking, what can we do as footballers? Everyone needs to play their bit. They started to talk among the broader footy cohort and found that 92 per cent of AFL men and women players were concerned about climate change, which is a high number but is not surprising because this is a cohort of 18- to 35-year-olds. Also, it actually reflects generally the population’s concern about climate change, which is still quite high despite what we might hear in some parts of the mainstream press. Tom and Jasper started working with other organisations to find out the best way they could help reduce their own footprints, like offsetting flights, taking some responsibility, but also helping support local footy clubs. AFL players are professional but come from community clubs in the cities, towns and regions all around Australia, and they wanted to know what they could do to best support the clubs that they love and work in within the broader footy family with the AFL, the Players’ Association, commercial partners, fans, members and clubs to help reduce emissions and also help protect this game that they love so much.

Is your organisation connected to Cricket for Climate?

No, although we work closely with them. Pat Cummins founded Cricket for Climate, and we support one another. We love the work they’re doing, work closely with them, because we have shared spaces. A footy club is generally a cricket club in summer, and some of the projects we’re doing are similar to theirs. For example, we’ve launched our Power Forward program a couple of months ago, which is installing solar and batteries on the roofs of footy clubs, and our first one was in Mansfield where we saw the energy bills of the Mansfield Footy Club go down from $9,000 to $900 for the year, which, for a footy club, that’s like a sponsor. That funds concussion testing for the club’s players for a whole year.

How much need is there for your work?

There are about 4,000 footy clubs around Australia and we want to help them. We know that the game has its challenges. We know that at least 596 clubs have required emergency assistance from the AFL since 2020 alone – that’s more than one in seven clubs needing emergency assistance because of bushfires and floods and extreme weather events.

What do you say to supporters who lean over the proverbial boundary line fence yelling: ‘Hey, players, stay out of politics and concentrate on getting a kick!’?

I love this one. I haven’t had it too much to be honest, but sport and politics have always been intertwined, haven’t they? Sport is a reflection of society and most people that talk about sport, they eventually get down to things like community and values and the things that they find important. But I would probably argue that we’re not really involved in politics. I would reply to that person over the fence that 596 clubs have had extreme weather events, caused by climate change, that hurt local footy and required emergency assistance. I think we would all agree that we care about those clubs staying in existence. They’re the heartbeat of local communities and even if we might agree or disagreeable politically, we all love footy.

Beyond being in the footy world, tell us about your personal passion for working on climate change.

I’ve had 25 years in the climate space and environment space, so that’s my vocation. I stumbled into it by starting an organisation called the Environmental Jobs Network with some friends at uni about 25 years ago, and then found myself in this broader environment and climate change space, which is an amazing space to be in. I think it’s about protecting the things that we care about and that we love and trying to make the world a better place, which I know most people at the end of the day are trying to do. Then to be able to mix it with something that’s a passion of mine like footy is amazing.

What about life outside work? Do you play footy?

I live in North Melbourne and have a partner and two kids, 12 and 15, and a five-year-old Schnauzer called Ringo, after the Beatle. Music is the other big passion in our family. I still play AFL Sevens, at the age of 48, which is touch AFL, seven per side. I absolutely love it. It’s played during summer, two 20-minute halves with a bunch of old mates, and it means that we can still get down there and have a kick and have a bit of competition without the chance of getting thumped or less chance of breaking a knee.

More information

Footy for Climate website

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