IndyCar: Chip Ganassi Racing Joins the Founding Circle of the GOAL Sustainability Movement
–Press Release–
Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) today joined a collective of major venues in sports and live entertainment across the globe as a member of the Founding Circle for the industry-wide GOAL sustainability platform to champion social impact, climate action, and responsible change.
GOAL, which was founded in October 2022 by Oak View Group (OVG), the Atlanta Hawks & State Farm Arena, Fenway Sports Group, and green building expert Jason F. McLennan, will provide venues at different points in their sustainability journeys with tactical roadmaps, easy-to-use tracking tools, a library of resources and case studies, and access to like-minded, leading operators, vendors, and solution-providers, all committed to operating more sustainably, more urgently.
Founding Circle venues, representing legendary teams and iconic places of mass assembly, are committed to leading, learning, collaborating, and, in all cases, making a positive impact on their communities and for the planet. In addition to tracking their own climate adaptation and mitigation progress, the group will help beta test the GOAL Platform, ensuring that the online tool and facilitated collaboration opportunities is designed for operators, by operators.
Chip Ganassi Racing is the first motorsports organization to join GOAL’s Founding Circle.
“Joining GOAL is the latest step in our company’s efforts to establish a motorsports industry-standard for measuring and reducing our carbon footprint,” Chip Ganassi, Owner and CEO of Chip Ganassi Racing, said. “We’re committed to emerging as leaders of authentic sustainable action and look forward to leveraging the GOAL Network to equip us throughout our sustainability journey.”
The Founding Circle members represent different sports, different geographies, and different building types of varying sizes and ages, ensuring that the input and feedback is worthy of the diversity of the live entertainment and hospitality industry. Some venues are already leading the way when it comes to climate action, and others are just beginning their respective journeys. But in all cases, these venues are action-oriented, climate-minded, and understand the urgency required to address a changing planet.
CGR joins initial Founding Circle members that were announced in October 2022: Acrisure Arena (Greater Palm Springs, CA), Budweiser Gardens (London, ON), Citi Field (New York, NY), Climate Pledge Arena (Seattle, WA), Co-op Live (Manchester, UK), Fenway Sports Group (Boston, MA), Footprint Center (Phoenix, AZ), FTX Arena (Miami, FL), Gainbridge Fieldhouse (Indianapolis, IN), Levi’s® Stadium (Santa Clara, CA), Moda Center (Portland, OR), Moody Center at University of Texas Austin (Austin, TX), Mullett Arena at Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ), PPG Paints Arena (Pittsburgh, PA), Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse (Cleveland, OH), State Farm Arena (Atlanta, GA), UBS Arena (Belmont Park, NY).
“Our Founding Circle partners are some of the most influential and forward-thinking venues across the sports, live entertainment and convention industry,” Chris Granger, president of OVG360, said. “I applaud Chip Ganassi Racing for their leadership, for their spirit of collaboration, and for their understanding of the urgency demanded by climate change. I look forward to working with Chip Ganassi and his team, learning from them, and sharing the very best ideas and best practices with our industry as we race against the clock, together.”
Kristen Fulmer, OVG’s sustainability director, added: “We are beta testing the platform with our inspiring roster of Founding Circle members, and will now open additional venues to join the movement. We want to right-size the platform to make sure that the data points and thresholds for leadership meet venues anywhere along their sustainability journey, engaging – and without shaming – venues that are just getting started, while also enhancing efforts in venues that already make an impact in a variety of different topics, from waste diversion, to water conservation, to improved indoor air quality.”