A report published last month by Sport Positive has highlighted the work being done to make Premier League clubs in England more sustainable.
It maps the environmental efforts of all 20 clubs across 13 categories, ranging from fan travel to biodiversity.
While the Premier League is one of the World’s richest sporting organisations, and each club has the heft and resources to commit to initiatives, there are still plenty of lessons to be learned from what they are doing that could be implemented in other smaller leagues and clubs.
13 of the 20 have all their energy from 100 per cent renewable sources.
Nine have rainwater or groundwater reuse initiatives.
Brighton has taken up the initiative we highlighted last week from the Europa League Final regarding fans’ getting to the stadium. They are not offering free public transport, but they are subsidising it.
Seven of the clubs have a sustainable travel policy for their teams, and five of them address the emissions they cannot reduce by carbon offsetting.
Man United have so far funded the planting of 14,752 trees with this in mind.
The Premier League oversees the Environmental Sustainability Commitment, which requires every club to publish a ‘robust environmental sustainability policy’ by the end of next season.
The report itself runs to more than 250 pages and is available to download below.
There are plenty of gems to absorb and an impressive amount of detail that each club has provided on what they are doing in this area.
This is definitely something our Leadership Group within the Sport for Business Sustainability Hub will discuss when we next meet later in the summer.
