Extreme E are up for two sustainability nominations in Wimbledon tomorrow night even as their 2024 season was cut short.
The BASIS awards show, created by the British Association for Sustainable Sport, will be held at the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club and aims to advertise sustainability through elite sport.
Extreme E was created as an electric off-road racing series to minimise environmental impact while raising awareness about climate issues, and one of the team owners is F1 legend Lewis Hamilton.
Managing director Ali Russell said: “Sustainability and innovation are key pillars of our sport-for-purpose racing series.
“Collaboration is the key to our success, so we feel very proud to see our partnerships with ENOWA and Vodafone Business being recognised so strongly within our industry.”
Extreme E received a nomination in two award categories: Sustainable Innovation and Partnership of the Year.
Their Sustainable Innovation nomination heralds their work on green hydrogen fuel with ENOWA, which contributed to their recent milestone of having 80% of their Scotland race weekend powered by hydrogen fuel cells.
A near full implementation of hydrogen fuel is a good sign in Extreme E’s aim to become fully hydrogen-powered.
That achievement will bring in a new name for the racing series – Extreme H – and its proposed car, Pioneer 25, has been undergoing FIA checks.
Pioneer 25 has passed the mandatory crash test and will be tested soon for battery and tank resilience, but while they have been doing that, the 2024 Extreme E calendar has been stopped.
With the move to Extreme H and the lack of plans for the rest of the season, there are questions about what they will be doing with their Legacy Programmes.
Legacy Programmes have been a major part of their environmental work to leave race locations better than before, with long-term projects like the conservation of Scotland’s River Nith and climate education in Greenland.
Drivers and scientists have returned to former Legacy locations to follow up on how projects are doing, and they are all linked with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals.
Director of Impact Julia Wall-Clarke said: “Legacy Programmes have been core to our series since inception and will continue with the Extreme H series next season.
“The initiatives we implemented throughout the last four seasons of Extreme E are long-term, and we will continue to stay in contact with all NGOs on their progress.”
The technology behind some of these projects was aided by Vodafone Business, and this collaboration is up for Partnership of the Year.
It will be intriguing to see how the existing legacy programmes develop in the next few years, and what ventures the corporation will take in Extreme H – with no confirmed date for the new season.
Featured image credit: Extreme E/LAT
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