Among
the many challenges that face football clubs in executing a successful business
model, corporate and political pressures have added another; consideration for
their environmental impact. The sport leaves an extraordinarily large carbon footprint,
using an enormous amount of electricity, gas and water. In order to adhere to the
environmental policies of football’s governing bodies alone, clubs and other
related businesses must take energy use and waste into account.
Improving
the sustainability and decreasing the negative effects of delivering football
to the public have been extremely high on the agenda for a number of years. High
profile figures in the game have made excellent strides in promoting
environmentally friendly construction and maintenance of football stadia around
the world. Former Manchester United defender and now England Coach Gary Neville
has used his profile, experiences and interests in property development to try
and “influence and change peoples’
attitudes”
towards the environmental impact that they may be having in their everyday
lives. In fact, Neville founded Sustainability
in Sport
(SIS) with Dale
Vince OBE,
which looks to raise awareness of the environmental impact that football has.
SIS
presents three club case studies: Forest Green Rovers; Manchester United, and;
Dartford FC. All three clubs have gone to great lengths to reduce their carbon
footprints and to reduce the waste produced by their operations. The latter
club mentioned here is in fact my local side, with their ultra-eco-friendly ground
Princes Park being opened in 2006. Since then the club has enjoyed great
success on the pitch - gaining three promotions in 5 seasons to take them up to
the National Conference – but have also cemented themselves as one of the most
environmentally friendly and sustainable football clubs in the United Kingdom. The
club has gained high recognition for having built “an
ethical stadium with water recycling, bike racks, grass roof and solar panels”.
In addition to other methods of reducing environmental impact, such as low energy lighting, encouraging the use
of public transport, waste efficiency and recycling (such as that employed by Man United’s
“Red’s Go Green” initiative), advertising and promotion within the game leans
very heavily toward saving and reducing the use of energy; helped in no small part by the
sponsorship of the Football League by npower.
For
such a global sport to be viewed as an ethical one, FIFA have made very visible
steps to ensure that football is leading by example in energy and environmental
policy. Its 2004 Green Goal Legacy report detailed the commitments and
adjustments made in respect of logistics and stadia for the 2006 World Cup in
Germany, making a commitment to reducing the impact had by large scale
tournaments. The roof of Kaiserslautern stadium alone was equipped with a 6000
square metre photovoltaic plant, capable of generating 720,000 kWh of
electricity per year. It was estimated that that the tournament would consume
13 million kWh of electricity across all of its sites during its four-week
duration – an astronomical figure. This was offset beforehand however by injecting
the very same amount of “green” energy into the normal German supply network.
In
addition to the work of the largest clubs and bodies, amateur football is making gradual
progress
in contributing to the wider efforts of the sport, taking responsibility for
their potentially harmful impact on the environment. After all, changing rooms
and showers need to be sufficiently warm in the long winter playing period, as
do the accompanying cups of half-time tea – all of these elements on a Saturday
afternoon or Sunday morning across the country begin to leave a mark. By making
small changes over a season, those clubs with their multitude of age groups and
reserve sides will be able to not only save precious funds, but count
themselves among the ever growing throng of energy conscious sports clubs
across the globe.
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