Football and Climate Change Newsletter #3

Visions of a sustainable future for football, practical actions now, and moves to drive implementation

Dec 09, 2022

“the sport sector can contribute to addressing the adverse impacts of climate change, including by reducing its own carbon footprint, by adopting sustainability standards, and by raising awareness and influencing millions of people worldwide and their behaviours”

United Nations General Assembly resolution, 1st December 2022

Hello again!

While the World Cup and its carbon emissions continue to attract attention, the stories I found most interesting focussed on visions for a sustainable future for football.

At the same time, many clubs and bodies have been getting on with practical actions, big and small. These demonstrate what can be done right now to make a difference.

Alongside this, there have been several important meetings, discussions and reports aiming to help implement more and better action in the future.

This newsletter provides a selection of the news and reports on all of these. It’s the third one and I’m still finding my way with it all. So all feedback, comments, and corrections are very welcome. As is sharing it with others!

Future focus

With concerns about the carbon footprint of the 2026 World Cup already being raised and the hosts of the 2030 World Cup to be chosen in 2024, two pieces looked at how future World Cups could be greener. Firstly, this from Football for Future notes that:

“football has a unique ability to capture imaginations, unite communities and change society”.

Their vision includes construction-free World Cups, ‘drag and drop’ stadiums, better carbon footprint reporting, and making sustainability core to the World Cup platform and legacy. Secondly, this piece for BBC Future recognises that:

“it's hard to overestimate the impact of a World Cup that visibly embraced and promoted genuine and credible climate action”.

The article considers various ideas that feed into a more ‘decentralised World Cup’. It also looks at the future role of ‘green ambassadors’, in terms of sponsors, advertisers and footballers.

Both of these future visions also highlight the importance of sustainability criteria. They suggest these need to be built into the bidding process for hosting the World Cup from the get-go.

Away from the World Cup, this article for The Sustainability Report focuses on a future vision with football clubs deeply embedded in their communities.

“As the strongest, most unifying brands, with economic clout and convening power, football clubs are vital forces for social good … Clubs enjoy more trust and more belief.”

In this vision, clubs could play a stronger, more active role in local wealth creation and sustainability alongside other local partners.

All this raises a key question: how to make change happen? In 90min Dr Mark Doige says:

“Addressing climate change requires significant structural change as well as individual change: fans can drive both of these … In February, the first Green Football Weekend will be an opportunity to bring together the fans, players and clubs to start acting collectively for the planet.”

Actions by clubs

Clubs and bodies taking action in the last couple of weeks include:

Portsmouth FC and Southampton FC announcing new partnership agreements with other key organisations in their local areas to reduce emissions.
Birmingham County FA announced a partnership with an energy and sustainability consultancy, Utility Works, to help BCFA member clubs access cheaper renewable energy contracts and help reduce energy consumption. The partnership also plans to deliver the first of its kind financial support fund to up to a 100 projects.
Leicester Nirvana FC starting its journey to becoming the UK's first grassroots Net Zero football club.
Oldham Athletic are looking at ways to cut utility costs that will also have the benefit of making them environmentally friendly. Of particular interest in the article was a comment on climate impacts and player’s well-being:
“The big ones for us are with the amount of water we use, constantly watering pitches, particularly with the dry summer we had and that’s been related back to a few injuries, pitches being too dry”
Sutton United is partnering with HumanForest to promote the use of electric bicycles
Wycombe Wanders announced a new waste management partnership aiming to significantly improve the club’s positive impact on the environment. The article also lists several other detailed actions the club is taking.
Northampton Town was presented with the Planet League Trophy for the most green actions taken by a clubs‘ fans over five weeks. They beat off some high-profile clubs to do so.
Sussex County FA teamed up with Football for Future for a workshop on ways to help drive the message of climate awareness.
Aston Villa, Burnley, Chelsea, Manchester United, and Middlesbrough have been working with schools under the ‘Premier League Inspires’ programme.
Leicester City highlighted their work to recycle football boots as part of the Football Rebooted scheme

Action at a European level

An EU Council meeting looked at sustainable sports infrastructure. The outcome included lots of proposed actions to drive implementation for member states, the European Commission and the sports movement. They cover information-sharing, roadmaps, incentives and more. It will be interesting to see how many of these are taken forward, and how quickly.
Alongside this, the EU-funded ‘SDG Striker’ initiative aimed at grassroots sporting organisations, has just released these new guidelines for incorporating and communicating the Sustainable Development Goals. It focuses on energy efficiency, solar power, and the use of microplastics, and includes a detailed section on choosing between artificial turf and natural grass pitch. SDG Striker also produces an occasional magazine with plenty more examples to inspire action.

Meetings, Reports, Events and more

Global Sustainability Benchmark in Sports 2022 from GSBS.
Why Offsets Won’t Solve Sports’ Climate Problem, from Badvertising.
The Importance Of Sport To Local Economies from Irwin Mitchell.
Sport as a way to drive behaviour change. A video in which Katie Cross, PledgeBall and David Powell, Climate Outreach share research on the criteria for success in bringing about a transformative shift, engagement lessons.
Upcoming Meeting:
- Qatar World Cup: Trashing the Beautiful Game, Liverpool, 11th December. Speakers include: Dan Carden MP; Sehrish Butt, Amnesty International; David Goldblatt; Football For Future Chairperson and sports writer; Melissa Wilson, Athletes of the World; and more
Forest Green Rovers chairman, Dale Vince, wrote an open letter to the English FA on their refusal to let the team where ‘Just Stop Oil’ tops in the warm-up their televised game.
5 initiatives for responsible football that show a different type of football is possible, from Ecolosport in France.
Football Shirts VS The Environment, by Oliver Ferris, explores the damage a mainstream polyester football shirt has on the environment.
In the kitchen with Germany’s World Cup chef: Japanese food, plant-based diets and fatigue.

Football and Climate

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