A greener pitch: Can football clubs clean up their act?

The beautiful game has a dirty secret: it produces as much CO₂ as some entire countries. Fans are clear that they want that to change, and clubs are responding by finding innovative ways to reduce their environmental impact.

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Introduction
How to kick off a more sustainable game
Star power can have a powerful halo effect

Introduction

The global football sector’s carbon footprint is about the same as the annual emissions of Austria.¹ Much of that is caused by travel: this is, after all, a global sport with famously passionate fans – and many clubs still travel to domestic matches by private jet.² About 60% of the English Premier League’s emissions come from player travel.³

This will have to change. Two-thirds of UK football fans think more work should be done to improve sustainability in football,⁴ and 65% think football clubs could make it easier for fans to behave sustainably.

“The whole question of sustainability is becoming more top of mind – for fans, for organisations that work with football clubs and for governments,” says Victor Okoro, co-founder of PLAEX Technologies, which builds smart bins that use AI to identify and sort waste at the source to maximise recycling.

The industry is responding to that pressure. In February 2024, Premier League clubs agreed to the Environmental Sustainability Commitment, which introduced a minimum standard of action across a range of environmental issues, including producing greenhouse gas datasets and designating a sustainability lead, by the end of the 2025/26 season.⁵

How to kick off a more sustainable game

In some areas of sustainability – including the big one, travel – progress is unlikely without government support. In Germany, for instance, free use of public transport to and from Bundesliga matches is included with tickets.⁶ And during the 2024 European Championships this was extended to cover the matches hosted in Germany. That’s not something clubs can arrange.

But there’s a lot they can do to reduce the environmental impact of the beautiful game.

They can work, for example, to cut down the waste produced on matchdays. The tens of thousands of fans at each top-flight football match generate a considerable amount of waste – from single-use plastics such as water bottles to food packaging.

PLAEX Technologies is one of the innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are stepping in. The Dutch company has trialled its smart bin, Garby, at FC Utrecht’s home, Stadion Galgenwaard, and FC Twente’s home, De Grolsch Veste.⁷

Victor Okoro explains that stadiums, more than almost any other building, are “perfectly positioned to achieve zero waste”, because fans aren’t usually allowed to bring in their own food and drink. This means clubs can control exactly what’s consumed – and what’s thrown away. “By doing just three things, they could achieve zero waste,” says Okoro. “Limit all drinks to be in either cans or recyclable plastic cups, sell all food on either recyclable paper or aluminium plates, and use smart bins like Garby to automatically sort the waste. Then it can all be recycled.”

During the trial, fans collected points for every kilogramme of waste they disposed of correctly, which they could then exchange for rewards. This gamification is a win-win for the clubs, according to Okoro: “We see a lot of value in building out this feature for the clubs, because it gives them even more engagement with their audience and brings more people into the merch stores.”

Another Dutch SME powering football progress in this area is The Waste Transformers, which builds on-site biodigesters for food waste. In 2023, it opened a biodigester at Amsterdam’s Johan Cruyff Arena, home of AFC Ajax, which converts food waste into electricity to help power the stadium and natural fertilizer for the pitch.⁸

“Taking food waste out of your other waste streams is low-hanging fruit – especially if you then use it on site to power your own stadium,” says Lara van Druten, The Waste Transformers’ CEO and founder. “There are a lot of opportunities for football clubs to present themselves as leaders in the sustainability space and change the narrative to inspire their fans. That’s important, because many clubs have told us they’re getting emails from fans all the time, asking them to have a greater positive impact.”

The whole question of sustainability is becoming more top of mind.

Victor Okoro
Co-founder, PLAEX Technologies

Star power can have a powerful halo effect

As part of a $3 billion industry, football clubs are powerful market players.⁹ But they’re not just financially influential: their popularity also attracts businesses that want some reflected glory. This could be a game changer for sustainability.

Think Beyond is a UK-based consultancy that helped develop Liverpool FC’s sustainability strategy, The Red Way.¹⁰ It works with sports organisations to make their procurement more sustainable, which often involves searching for more local businesses to work with that might not initially have strong sustainability strategies.

“It’s more impactful to work with the companies that aren’t on the green journey than just selecting the ones that are already there,” says Dr Susie Tomson, senior partner – sustainability at Think Beyond. “A lot of suppliers want to work with sport – there’s a power there. The kudos of working with a Premier League football club is huge. And then the effects start filtering down the supply chain.”

And if clubs change their approach to sustainability, they can also inspire their millions of fans to think differently about it, and perhaps think more about how they dispose of waste in their own time. “Football clubs really have the power and the prestige to change their fans’ behaviour, because people truly look up to their favourite club,” says The Waste Transformers’ marketing director Coen Bakker. “And if they ‘we stand for this’, they plant a seed in people’s minds.”

According to Tomson, this is a level of influence that could even have a real impact on global efforts to cut emissions. “Sport could collectively get together and really lobby for change,” says Tomson. “That should be the next stage of maturity for sports leaders – to say they’ve done what they can on their own, but they need governments and airlines to go faster and harder.”