ESG & CSR for the Sports & Lifestyle Industry

Forensic Data Collection Framework

The dataset presented in this report encompasses 2.3 million verified field data points collected between January 2015 and December 2025 across 28 Indian states and 8 union territories. The active mobility programme data (2017–2025) was captured through Earth5R's GPS-verified activity tracking system, integrated within the Earth5R mobile application, which recorded distance, mode of transport (walk, cycle, or run), route GPS coordinates, duration, and participant demographics for every logged activity session.

Carbon offset calculations employ the Indian Ministry of Environment's standard vehicular emission factors: 0.24 kg CO₂ per kilometre for average motorised two-wheeler transport and 0.18 kg CO₂ per passenger-kilometre for bus/auto-rickshaw substitution. The blended emission factor applied across the programme (0.239 kg CO₂/km) reflects the weighted average of transport modes substituted, as reported by participants in their activity logs.

All activity data undergoes Earth5R's three-tier forensic verification: (1) real-time GPS tracking with speed-anomaly detection, (2) daily automated data quality audits by the SaaS-X engine, and (3) monthly human review of statistical outliers by the Earth5R data engineering team. This methodology aligns with the GHG Protocol Scope 3 Category 7 (Employee Commuting) and GRI 305 (Emissions) reporting standards.

Problem Statement: Urban India's Transport Emission Crisis

India's urban transport sector accounts for approximately 13.5% of national CO₂ emissions, with motorised two-wheelers and private cars constituting the dominant mode of short-distance travel (under 5 km) in metro cities. Earth5R's 2015–2017 baseline surveys across 12 metro cities revealed that 74% of trips under 3 km were made using motorised vehicles — representing a massive, addressable emission reduction opportunity through active mobility substitution.

The challenge was not merely environmental. India's urban population faced a concurrent public health crisis: sedentary lifestyle diseases (obesity, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular conditions) were rising at 4.8% annually in metro populations. The opportunity was to design a programme that addressed both crises simultaneously — reducing carbon emissions while improving public health outcomes — creating a dual-return ESG proposition.

Critically, any effective programme needed to overcome India's gender participation gap in outdoor sports and active mobility. In 2017, women constituted only 24% of cycling and running programme participants nationally — a structural barrier driven by safety concerns, infrastructure deficits, and social norms that Earth5R's programme was specifically designed to address.

Partnership Architecture & Contribution

Decathlon, a global leader in sports retail operating over 1,700 stores in 70 countries, recognised that its brand mission — making sports accessible to all — inherently aligned with Earth5R's active mobility carbon offset model. The partnership, formalised in 2017, positioned Decathlon as the anchor corporate sponsor of the Walk, Cycle, Run initiative, providing three critical resources: physical venue infrastructure (stores as award ceremony sites), material incentives (bicycles, sports gear, discount coupons), and brand credibility that accelerated participant trust and enrolment.

The Decathlon-specific programme subset — tracked separately within Earth5R's SaaS-X platform — directly offset 1,500 tonnes of CO₂, equivalent to removing 500 cars from the road for a year. Monthly award ceremonies at Decathlon stores across participating cities created recurring engagement touchpoints that maintained participant motivation across seasonal variations and programme fatigue cycles.

Critically, the Decathlon partnership served as a proof-of-concept that corporate-community sustainability partnerships can generate authentic, measurable ESG outcomes — not merely brand-associated greenwashing. This evidence enabled Earth5R to expand the programme through citizen associations beyond the Decathlon partnership, scaling from 1 corporate partner to a national movement operating across 12 cities with over 140 citizen association partnerships.

• City Expansion (12 → 50 by 2030): The programme will expand from 12 to 50 Indian cities — including Tier 2 cities (Indore, Bhopal, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Visakhapatnam) where cycling and walking infrastructure is improving and active mobility adoption rates are rising faster than in saturated metros.
• Participant Target (2 Million by 2030): From 523,067 to 2 million cumulative participants — enabled by digital onboarding, employer-sponsored wellness-sustainability programmes, and school/university integration. The citizen association network will expand from 140 to 500+ partnerships.
• Female Participation to 50%: Building on the 24% → 47% trajectory, the programme targets gender parity by 2028. This requires continued investment in women's safety infrastructure, evening cohort expansion, and women-led citizen association formation.
• Carbon Offset Certification: Earth5R is pursuing Gold Standard and Verra VCS certification for the programme's carbon offsets — converting community-generated emissions avoidance into tradeable carbon credits that could generate direct economic returns for participants.
• International Expansion: With Earth5R operational in 65 countries, the Walk, Cycle, Run model will be adapted for deployment in Southeast Asian and Latin American metro cities where motorised two-wheeler density creates similar short-distance emission reduction opportunities.