Stakeholders’ involvement to reduce the environmental impact of football with sustainability actions – ITALY

Objective:  As in Italy recent studies have shown the environmental impact of a football match regarding a high consumption of energy, water, the production of waste, an increase in emissions deriving from the mobility of fans, this initiative aims to improve the management of the sport events.

General description of the initiative: In recent years, the issue of environmental sustainability in professional football has assumed increasingly importance. Top clubs have adopted their own environmental sustainability strategy, building new stadium or organizing major events (e.g. European, World Championships) and increasingly are looking at the issue of sustainability as an essential element of social responsibility policies.

The European Football Associations, Football Players Association and Football Leagues, invited by UEFA, are increasingly aware of the need to adopt actions aimed at involving a large number of stakeholders in order to undertake initiatives reducing the environmental impact of football activity.

In December 2021, UEFA approved its sustainability strategy where 4 out of 11 policy guidelines are dedicated to the environment: circular economy, climate change, event sustainability, infrastructure sustainability. Furthermore, this strategy associates EU environmental policies with the sustainability objectives of the United Nations 2030 Agenda (Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), “Responsible consumption and production” (goal 12), “Climate action” (goal 13) and “Sustainable cities and communities” (goal 11).

FIGC decided, as legacy of the EU Project “Life Tackle”, to adopt the initiative of the Chart involving all Football partners and stakeholders.

The purpose of the Chart is to become a reference document for the organizations that in the future will undertake paths of environmental sustainability in the national football scenario.

This Charter has been written, and later approved in February 2022, one month after the end of the European Life TACKLE project. The Life TACKLE project saw FIGC participate as a partner together with two other European Football Associations (Sweden and Romania) coordinated by the SUM laboratory (Sustainability Management) of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, project leader. Actually, FIGC is the main promoter of this document, which, with the technical support of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, has seen a large involvement of the following organizations in the world of football:

• Italian Football Coaches Association-AIAC
• Italian Footballers’ Association-AIC
• Amateur League
• Lega Pro
• Lega Serie A
• League Serie B
• FIGC Technical Sector

Principles and actions for environmental sustainability in football

1-Environmental governance

2-Management of Stadiums and Infrastructures

3-Event management

4-Stakeholders engagement and partnerships

5-Involvement of fans

Results: to date, 98 professional and non-professional football clubs have joined the Chart. We identified club’s needs and priorities, during a workshop organized in Coverciano – Florence at the FIGC Technical Center last February and scheduled a webinar for the staff selected by clubs interested. The main club’s priorities, identified during the brainstorming, are funding and staff training. Funds are necessary for implementing the renovation / construction of stadium, substitution of water system, in order to reduce dispersion or energy consumption saving through the led bulb replacement. Another weakness, according many clubs, is the training of staff dedicated to environmental management.

We decided to start organizing a webinar next 26^th September for our stakeholders.

Taking as reference the principles of the «Chart on Environmental Sustainability of Football», coordinated by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the webinar will introduce the key concepts of environmental management in the sports sector, and will illustrate the functioning of an application tool for measuring ‘environmental footprint’ of a football match.

The aim of the webinar is also to respond to the inputs provided by the clubs participating in the first meeting of Chart’s adherents.

Example of topics that will be discussed in the webinar are:

1. The measurement of environmental impacts. Principles and tools for identifying environmental “hotspots” associated with football matches.

2. Environmental planning. Identify goals and implement improvement actions.

3. Environmental governance. Adapt organizational structure to support environmental improvement.

4. Introduction to the Environmental Footprint Calculator. A user-friendly application tool for calculating the environmental footprint of a football match.

Participation in the webinar is open to all companies and organizations adhering to the Chart on the Environmental Sustainability of Football.

 After the webinar, as next step, clubs that are part of the project will provide a report on the implemented activities in order to monitor and share the outputs.

Key success factors: increase the awareness of FIGC stakeholders on environmental governance

Future:  bring together European stakeholders and improve the participating clubs environmental governance.

The subjects have been joined by some of the FIGC partners with significant experience in environmental sustainability issues such as Eni, Acqua Lete and Coripet.