At Arsenal's Emirates Stadium this week, European football governing body UEFA unveiled a carbon footprint calculator. At its core, this calculator is a tool that simplifies the classification of greenhouse gas protocol categories and tailors it specifically to football operations.
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The calculator comes with a user guide, tutorial videos, and a complete methodology. Verified by a third party verification organization. It is the first time a sports governing body has rolled out such a tool on this scale to “enable everyone involved in football to calculate, understand and act on the emissions associated with the game.”
The National Hockey League and SAP launched NHL Venue Metrics in 2022 to measure and analyze the carbon footprint produced by 32 clubs. The International Orienteering Federation has a carbon calculator to calculate his CO2 emissions from car travel, and the FIA has launched an online carbon calculator for his federations and officials in 2021.
Two common challenges that football and sport organizations cite when moving forward with environmental sustainability initiatives are not knowing where to start and a lack of internal resources and expertise to undertake this work. That's it.
The phrase “you can't manage what you don't measure” is often quoted, and The Economist reports: There are 300,000 soccer clubs around the worldThis calculator does not provide the resources needed to collect and input data into the tool or create a reduction strategy. However, those who are prepared to calculate baseline carbon emissions will be able to do so in a more standardized way. This should encourage more clubs to take up this initiative.
This was highlighted by Thomas Seil, Head of Projects and CSR at the French Football Association, who spoke at this week's launch. He commented during the panel discussion that the tool “saves organizations time and allows them to focus on data collection and the most important part: the details of their emissions reduction strategies.” This is just the beginning of the journey. ”
Speakers at the event were asked to share their insights on the broader landscape of climate reporting and environmentally focused work in football and sport.
Lindita Zaferi Salih, UN Sport for Climate Action leader, said: “Football can step up and do more” and the calculator is a “sign of encouragement”. said.
Ariela Cario, Associate Professor of Management Accounting at Bocconi University and Senior Adviser to UEFA, talks about the new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive in Europe and how it affects not only football clubs but also many others who will be subject to disclosure. He talked about what impact he would have on the club. Sponsor's Obligations Under the CSRD. She emphasized that the carbon calculator predicts what clubs and organizations need to deliver in the coming years in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.
Asked about collaboration between Premier League clubs on environmental initiatives during the event, Michael Lloyd, Arsenal Football Club's Environmental Sustainability Manager, said: 'We all want to be the best on the pitch. “But other than that, we are working closely together.” I'm picking up the pace. ”
In his review of the calculator's launch, Sustainable Football's Thom Rawson says there are no shortcuts to producing high quality, detailed and complete data to input into the tool. While there is scope for this tool to evolve in the future, this announcement signals that football, and by extension the sport, is moving towards a more action-driven and standardized approach to tackling its environmental impact. This is a powerful indicator.
