My name is Rishin Tandon and as a multi-sport athlete and someone who cares deeply about the environment, I’ve seen how youth sports can have a huge impact, both positive and negative. From piles of plastic water bottles to gas-guzzling travel and fields that bake in extreme heat, it became clear to me that sports weren’t just affected by climate change, but also contributing to it. I started thinking: what if teams had an easy way to be more sustainable?

That question led me to dive deeper. I conducted independent research on how prior FIFA World Cups handled sustainability looking at areas like waste management, energy use, and transportation. While interning with Global Sustainable Sport, I analyzed what professional teams were doing and realized something big: there wasn’t a clear system to measure or guide sustainability in youth sports. That didn’t make sense, especially since over 70 million kids play organized sports in the U.S. alone. If youth teams made even small changes, the overall impact could be massive.

That’s why I created YESS—the Youth Eco Sports Scorecard. I developed and refined it through the Climate Leaders Fellowship with the Stanford Deliberative Democracy Lab, along with mentorship from the Aspen Institute’s Service Learning Through Sports Program (where I received a micro-grant in partnership with the King County Play Equity Coalition). Most recently, I was honored as a 2025 Billie Jean King Youth Leadership Award national honoree, celebrated at the ESPYs, recognizing YESS as a youth-led movement redefining how sport can drive climate and equity solutions.

YESS is a simple, practical tool that helps teams take real action—whether that’s carpooling to games, switching to reusable bottles, or setting heat safety guidelines. But it’s also bigger than a tool: every completed scorecard builds the world’s first dataset on youth sports sustainability, creating visibility, accountability, and momentum for change.

At the end of the day, YESS is about making sustainability second nature in youth sports. By bringing together athletes, coaches, and communities, we can turn small changes into something bigger, and show that sports can be a force for good in the fight against climate change.