April 14th, 2023, Pisa: The FREE KICKS project, co-ordinated by the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies (SSSA), and in partnership with FC Porto, Fundación Real Betis Balompie, Malmö FF, Racing Club, Romanian Football Federation and European Club Association (ECA), has launched and will address the topics of circular economy and environmental sustainability in football organisations.

No organisation in the football world has yet pursued the adoption of EU environmental management tools, such as Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS), EU Ecolabel, Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) or Organisation Environmental Footprint (OEF).

Against this backdrop, the FREE KICKS (Football Relies on EMAS and ECOLABEL to Keep Innovating on Circularity as a Key for Sustainability) Project – co-funded by the European Union* – aims to trigger football’s transition towards the goals of the Green Deal and the New Circular Economy Action Plan, at collective and individual levels, by supporting:

• The uptake of leading-edge environmental management practices and sustainable organizational models among national football associations and professional clubs, focusing on operational activities
• Climate-conscious and environment-friendly behavioural patterns among football organizations

Project coordinators, the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, will work with project partners on three key task areas, to:

1. Assess the sustainability needs and environmental priorities of the participating football organisations, and three participating project partners will engage in obtaining EMAS (Eco- Management and Audit Scheme) registration during the project
2. Improve the environmental governance of the football supply chain in the participating football organizations
3. Calculate the environmental footprint of three partner football organizations through the PEF or OEF methodological standards of the European Commission using a life cycle analysis (LCA)

From these efforts each football organization with the support of SSSA and project partner ECA, will define their own Environmental Improvement Plan.

Sport Positive, the London-based organisation that heads up world-leading Sport Positive Summit, Sport Positive Leagues, The Climate of Sport Podcast, intelligence bulletins, media and support to increase action and ambition on sustainability, climate change, biodiversity and environmental justice in sport, will support the project as communication and dissemination partner. This role will include ensuring the learnings and take-aways from project actions are shared with the world of football and sport, to encourage increased action throughout the community.

Over the project’s 30-month duration, from February 2023 – August 2025, FREE KICKS partners will share progress and learnings via dissemination moments including awareness raising events, a mid-term report and conference, knowledge sharing via podcasts, social media, newsletters and videos and a final report and conference detailing the findings and achievements of the project.

At the launch of the project, partners commented on their hopes for the project:

Teresa Santos, Sustainability Manager of FC Porto said “With FC Porto’s participation in the FREE KICKS project, we are convinced it will be another lever for the continuous improvement of our environmental performance. Our experience in environmental management, acquired through the implementation of ISO 14001 within the FC Porto facilities, combined with the diverse know-how of the consortium partners, we believe it will be an important contribution to motivate and achieve behavioural change and environmental performance among sports organizations.”

Rafael Muela, General Manager at Fundación Real Betis said “This project is a new opportunity to learn and innovate in sustainability from important partners such as the ECA and many other European clubs and federations active in the fight against climate change through sustainable initiatives.”

Niclas Carlnén, CEO of Malmö FF commented: “At Malmö FF, we recognise the importance of advocating for sustainability in football as a driver for impactful change and promotion of sustainable solutions. While striving for sporting achievements and sporting successes, it is also important for our club to act as a role model leading the development in our community and in society. Therefore, we are proud to take part in the FREE KICKS project to keep innovating and to implement environmental management actions.”

Tiberio Daddi, associate professor at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, added: “The FREE KICKS project represents a further step forward in the promotion of sustainable solutions for the world of football. The Sustainability Management Laboratory at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies has extensive experience in EMAS and PEF/OEF. Our research group, focused on Sports and Sustainability, looks forward to applying these tools to football in collaboration with our high-level project Consortium.”

* Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EACEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Sport Positive Leagues Release EFL Matrix For First Time

29th March 2023, London: For the first time, Sport Positive Leagues has collated a large cross section of information on the environmental sustainability efforts of English Football League (EFL) Championship, League One and League Two football clubs, releasing it today via the Sport Positive Leagues EFL 2022 Matrix.

As well as sharing information and rankings for individual division, Sport Positive has also collated this into a combined league, unifying all EFL Championship, League One and League Two club information into one overall matrix.

In what comes as a surprise to absolutely nobody, Forest Green Rovers – named by FIFA as ‘the greenest football club in the world’ in 2017 – takes first place position in both in League One and the combined league, with a perfect score, showing their holistic commitment to environmental sustainability through every part of the organisation.

The top three clubs across each individual division are:

• Championship: Bristol City (1st), Norwich City (2nd), Watford (3rd)
• League One: Forest Green Rovers (1st), Plymouth Argyle (2nd), Charlton Athletic (3rd)
• League Two: Rochdale (Joint 1st), Crewe Alexandra (Joint 1st) and Grimsby Town (3rd)

All information about the clubs efforts and the entire Sport Positive Leagues EFL matrix can be viewed here

Reacting to the release, Forest Green Rovers Chair, Dale Vince commented “It’s great to see the extent to which sustainability in football has become a thing, almost but not yet – an accepted part of the game. Ten years ago we were a lone voice with a radical idea, today it’s fast becoming normal, not just in English football but internationally too – and indeed the whole world of sport. Football clubs have the same responsibility as everyone else to take care of their impact on the world – but we also have a unique opportunity, few others have – a platform from which to inform and influence billions of people. That’s happening now”

Club Director of Bristol City, Gavin Marshall said “We’re pleased to be among the clubs leading change across football. We recognise that we have an impact and are working hard to mitigate that across a number of key areas. Sport clearly has a long way to go but it feels like clubs are finally waking up to the challenge.”

In regard to the work that clubs are doing in this space, Sport Positive Founder Claire Poole commented, “Across all three divisions there are great examples of leadership from many EFL clubs, we congratulate those clubs for their efforts towards a sustainable future.”

She went on “For those clubs that aren’t as far ahead, we hope that the publication of this information raises awareness, and that support and progress continues apace. The EFL’s Green Clubs scheme has provided a framework for clubs to build upon and develop alongside their own initiatives. Football provides such an incredible platform to drive collective action in tackling the climate crisis, and as the recent IPCC report highlighted, we are running out of time – but the power is in our hands.”

Sport Positive Leagues have endeavoured to share environmental sustainability information on football clubs in an easily digestible matrix format since 2019, having done three editions of Sport Positive Leagues focussed on Premier League clubs, one on Bundesliga clubs and one on Ligue 1 clubs, with others in progress.

To date, Sport Positive has not published it’s matrices unless every club has collaborated with the work. Unfortunately after nearly a year of work, some EFL clubs were unable to engage, so Sport Positive made the first time, difficult decision to publish anyway – to deliver on commitment to the 60%+ of clubs that did share their environmental sustainability efforts. Any club that did not share or verify the information that Sport Positive research found is visibly denoted in the matrix. A very small number of clubs advised they did not wish to take part in the workstream, so we have honoured their request and not shared any information on these clubs, this is also clearly denoted.

The categories that clubs are evaluated on for this edition of Sport Positive Leagues Matrix include: commitment and policy, clean energy, energy efficiency, sustainable transport, waste management, single use plastic reduction/removal, water efficiency, the availability of low-carbon/plant based food, biodiversity, education and communications/engagement.

These Leagues are released every year, and each year the categories that clubs are evaluated on, and points attributed, evolve – making it more difficult to reach the maximum points unless a clubs is working continually, strategically and holistically, with real ambition, across their entire organisation and properties. Whilst they are only released once a year, clubs can update Sport Positive on their efforts at any time, and the website will be updated.

Sport Positive Leagues have released a short FAQ paper to answer questions that the organisation receives in regard to this work. That paper can be accessed here.

Nearly every EFL club is doing positive work in the area of environmental sustainability in some way and the EFL is supporting clubs with their practices via its EFL Green Clubs accreditation scheme. For more information on Sport Positive visit the website for full information: www.sportpostiveleagues.com

-Ends-

Sport Positive Leagues are part of the Sport Positive group, who also run the annual Sport Positive Summit in collaboration with UNFCCC and IOC, host the The Climate of Sport podcast, as well as supporting the global sports industry towards increased action and ambition on climate change, sustainability, environmental justice and biodiversity.

For press enquiries please email [email protected]