Trends
Article, Monday, 21st March 2021
The corona pandemic has increased the attention of sustainability in the German Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2
For more than 90 percent of the 36 clubs in the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2, ecological sustainability has a high priority - which has increased again since the outbreak of the corona pandemic. 92 percent of the clubs in a first query said that the topic of sustainability is important to them. A second query after the pandemic break out showed that the importance of ecology and sustainability as a result of the corona pandemic had increased for 14 percent of the clubs.
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The pandemic, in which many of the climate-damaging factors of professional football have inevitably disappeared, gave the clubs an opportunity to think about climate protection strategies.
The vast majority of the 36 clubs have already implemented measures for reducing:
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Energy usage (72%)
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Water consumption (69%)
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Waste generation (75%)
56 percent of the clubs operate their own photovoltaic systems to generate energy from renewable resources. A total of 67 percent stated that they want to extend such systems in the future.
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European Championship 2024 in Germany should be climate neutral
Gerd Müller, the German development minister, is now calling on the Bundesliga to become more sustainable and pay more attention to the environment. He believes that the European Championship 2024, which will take place in Germany, should be made climate neutral through compensation mechanisms.
Fans and employees are encouraged to act sustainably
However, the clubs alone are not responsible for reducing emissions in football. Fans themselves can also contribute to making the sport more climate-friendly overall, for example, by taking advantage of the offer to travel to the stadium by public transport instead of by car.
At almost all stadium locations, fans are therefore encouraged by the clubs to travel to home games in a way that saves CO2 (92 percent of the clubs), primarily through the possibility of free use of local public transport in conjunction with the ticket (89 percent of the clubs).
39 percent of the clubs are also ecologically motivated with regard to the travel volume of their own employees, for example by making guidelines for the preferred use of public transport, emission compensation for business trips or the issue of job tickets. 11 percent ensures that the team travel to the games is offset by CO2.
Clubs own ecological projects expand
81 percent of the clubs run their own ecological projects, primarily in the areas of biodiversity and afforestation.
In addition:
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39% support the projects of external partnerships
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53% are working towards explicitly formulated sustainability goals, for which the development of holistic mobility concepts and the introduction of waste and energy management systems and the reduction of CO2 emissions and energy consumption are primarily defined
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17% state that they are preparing a specific climate report
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94% the goal of further expanding their sustainability commitment over the next three years.
The future
The results of the survey also formed the basis of a virtual event at the end of September 2020, to which the “Responsibility Working Group” invited the CSR officers from all 36 clubs. The appointment served as an exchange about the knowledge gained and the opportunity to adopt good practice examples and to discuss possible hurdles and problems in the implementation of sustainability measures.
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