BACKGROUND

Aims 

For this project we had three targeted aims: 

• To develop a user-friendly carbon calculator to track and quantify emissions.  

• Develop a generic pathway to minimise emissions for social organisations  

• Demonstrate the methodology by applying to case studies 

Project Definition 

The purpose of developing our methodology, creating a carbon counting tool and outlining strategies for small organisations to transition towards net-zero, was focused on small sports clubs, specifically football clubs. The reason being that football is easily the most popular sport worldwide and undeniably the number one sport in the UK. Currently, the sports industry is aiming to make the shift towards sustainability thanks to the United Nation’s “Sports for Climate Action” movement, football clubs around the world have begun making the necessary changes to reduce their carbon emissions. Within the sports industry there is a large amount of travel involved, both for public and the teams, huge consumption of goods at events and outside, the purchasing of various equipment, production of commercial goods and continuous energy usage for all their facilities.  

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While the industry is attempting to tackle these issues, not all sports organisations have the ability or the financial capacity to enact the necessary actions to achieve this net-zero goal by 2050. This is especially true for the smaller semi-pro leagues including leisure clubs and youth clubs, where it is unlikely they would have the revenue or skills needed to make the shift to sustainability. Carbon counting and understanding what methods to utilise in order to reduce carbon emissions can be challenging for those who do not have the required training, with the added difficulty that government guidelines can be confusing to use. Thus, the need for the creation of a user-friendly tool to be able to quantify and monitor total emissions of a club and give an easy-to-use approach for non-professionals to reduce their overall emissions for these smaller sport organisations is essential. 

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One of the fundamentals of change is through increasing public awareness, thus the football industry could play a key role in creating stronger sustainable commitments and goals throughout its huge community in the UK. Football within the UK has a huge reach due to its large and loyal fan base, setting trends and encouraging new culture to take root. This gives professional and local clubs the opportunity to enact new ways of thinking around green culture and encourage its growth among their supporters. Many clubs tend to be active in their local communities, enabling growth of the local area and businesses. As local teams adopt more sustainable practices within their clubs, this can encourage local communities and businesses to enact similar practices within their own structure and organisations. Local teams can have the ability to influence, and positivity impact their loyal supporters and employees. Youth teams for example can help shape young players, thus beginning to support green culture for these types of clubs early on, can have a massive and lasting effect on the youth’s views of sustainability and green culture.  

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Many of the football teams in the UK are beginning to show major commitment to achieving net-zero, by being more considerate about their emissions and what they can do to reduce them. This commitment can be seen worldwide in the football industry and accompanying sports, companies like Nike and Adidas, are developing more sustainable equipment/sportswear being from the materials utilised for their products and manufacturing methods for production. As more football clubs are committing towards net-zero emissions, it is important to develop a generic method which can be applied and easily implemented by smaller semi-pro and leisure teams to quantify and minimise their emissions.