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On the Couch: Conversation with Adam Cheyne from Sports Environment Alliance
On the Couch is back for 2026 and celebrating Brisbane’s sustainability change-makers.
In this edition, we chat with Adam Cheyne, CEO of Sports Environment Alliance (SEA), Australia’s peak body for environmental action in sport, to explore how the organisation is mobilising clubs, codes and communities to protect the places where we play.
Founded more than a decade ago, SEA has grown into the essential connector across the sport ecosystem, empowering everyone from grassroots volunteers to national sporting organisations to take meaningful climate action. Their mission is simple but powerful: ensure sport not only adapts to a changing climate, but leads the charge toward a regenerative future.
This conversation dives into the inspiration behind SEA’s work, the real climate impacts already disrupting fields and fixtures, and the practical initiatives helping clubs cut waste, reduce emissions and build resilience. It also explores SEA’s collaborative approach with partners such as Brisbane Sustainability Agency, which strengthens their ability to scale good practice nationally.
Looking ahead to Brisbane 2032, SEA shares a clear vision for how sustainability can be embedded now, ensuring future infrastructure, competitions and community programs support a healthier, more inclusive and climate‑resilient sporting landscape.
Together, SEA and its partners are proving that sport has both the responsibility and the opportunity to lead Australia toward a more sustainable future – one club, one code and one community at a time.
Adam Cheyne, CEO Sport Environment Alliance
A conversation with Adam Cheyne: Environment Action in Sport
Sport Environment Alliance brings together clubs, codes and partners to protect the places where we play. How do you describe the Alliance’s purpose and why is it important for sport to be part of the sustainability conversation?
Adam: Sport Environment Alliance (SEA) is Australia’s peak body connecting clubs, sporting organisations, professionals, athletes, leagues, venues and partners around a simple notion that sport has both a responsibility and an incredible opportunity to lead on sustainability and climate action.
Sport touches every community in this country, so if we can shift how sport operates and advocates, the ripple effect is enormous across our communities.
From grassroots clubs to major venues, your members are trialling practical initiatives to cut emissions, reduce waste and protect playing fields. Can you share a recent project that illustrates this work on the ground?
Adam: A recent partnership with Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme allows SEA to support clubs and sporting organisations in turning everyday rubbish into real revenue, in a scalable, immediately actionable way, with a true focus on circularity.
We also launched Australia’s first Green Sports Day in October 2025, which gave clubs and sporting stakeholders across the country a moment to celebrate and showcase what they’re already doing, allowing this national day to drive pledges, commitment and action on climate through the power of sport.
Extreme heat, flooding and changing seasons are already affecting how and where we play sport. What are you hearing from clubs and athletes about these impacts and how is the Alliance helping them adapt?
Adam: What we’re consistently hearing is that extreme heat and flooding are critical concerns, affecting access to fields of play, leading to training and games being cancelled, and significantly impacting junior and community sport programming. Flooding is wiping out seasons for clubs that simply don’t have the resources to recover.
Our advocacy and leadership is focused on helping clubs build practical adaptation plans that are actually usable at a volunteer-committee level, whilst driving increased professional capacity to support national sporting organisations through to local governments nationally.
Collaboration is central to your model. How are you working with local government, partners such as Brisbane Sustainability Agency and national sporting bodies to scale good practice and support long term resilience in community sport?
Adam: At SEA, we’re working hard to ensure we’re not duplicating effort and established organisations by connecting our members, partners, and sporting stakeholders to start addressing the impacts of climate in their sports.
Partnerships like the one we’re building with Brisbane Sustainability Agency are critical, bringing enhanced local knowledge, credibility and reach that a national body like ours can’t replicate on its own.
As we move towards Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, what would you like to see embedded in sporting infrastructure, competitions, and community programs to ensure sport remains a force for health, inclusion and environmental stewardship?
Adam: Brisbane 2032 is a genuine generational opportunity for climate and sport, and I’d love to see sustainability genuinely embedded from today, not reacted to at the end of the delivery process. That means infrastructure is designed and built for climate resilience, legacy programs consider climate challenges of now and the future, which can leave community clubs better resourced than before the games, and address the impacts of climate.
I genuinely believe the Brisbane 2032 Olympic movement can prove that sport can be a force for environmental leadership, as the places we play are dependent on a healthy and stable climate for all to enjoy.
The Sports Environment Alliance embodies the leadership, collaboration and determination needed to ensure sport can thrive in a changing climate. Their commitment to protecting the places where we play, and empowering every club, code and community to take action, highlights the vital role sport can play in shaping a sustainable and regenerative future.
As we shine a light on sustainability champions like SEA, Brisbane Sustainability Agency remains dedicated to elevating the stories that guide our city’s transition toward a more sustainable future. By inspiring, connecting and supporting individuals, clubs, organisations and government, we can strengthen community resilience and ensure sport continues to be a force for health, inclusion and environmental stewardship – together.
If you would like to be a part of our On the Couch series, please reach out to Phoebe Mann at [email protected].