THE FA LAUNCHES NEW SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY

The Football Association (FA) has announced a new five-year sustainability strategy.

Titled ‘Playing for the Future’, the national governing body’s strategy sets out a plan to make a positive impact on the environment and communities it serves, and focuses on three core areas:

1. Shoot for Net Zero – fight climate change and reduce emissions

○ Achieve net zero status by 2040

○ Invest over £35m to deliver the 2040 ambition

○ Work towards reducing CO2e emissions 50% by 2030 from a 2019 baseline, reducing electricity consumption by 30% by 2028 from a 2019 baseline, and reducing gas consumption by 20% by 2028 from a 2019 baseline

2. Save Our Resources – optimise resource consumption

○ Reduce resource consumption across Wembley Stadium and St. George’s Park, and embed more sustainable practices across the organisation

○ Minimise impact of waste through procurement choices, avoiding waste, identifying reuse opportunities and maximising recyclability

○ Reduce water consumption by 30% by 2028 from a 2019 baseline

○ Protect biodiversity across all FA venues – animals, wildlife, plants, micro-organisms

3. Make An Impact – deliver and govern change across football

○ As the governing body of English football, The FA is in a unique position to drive wider environmental and societal change across clubs, leagues, and with partners

○ The FA will create the operational framework to embed this strategy across the whole organisation, including its facilities, and increase awareness and environmental sustainability practices across football, whilst governing and supporting wider change

○ The strategy will also ensure FA partners are aligned and committed to the sustainability ambitions

According to a statement, the launch of Playing for the Future ‘builds on the extensive work across Wembley Stadium and St. George’s Park to drive operational sustainability efforts, particularly around waste, food and energy’ and will be reviewed every two years.

Mark Bullingham, The FA’s Chief Executive, said, “The climate crisis presents one of the most significant challenges of our lifetime, and we are determined to play our part in inspiring positive and meaningful change. Through our new five-year commitment, we want to make tangible progress through our own sustainability initiatives, while raising awareness, and bringing the wider football community with us on this journey.

“We look forward to working with the leagues, clubs, County FAs and our partners to harness the unique power of football so that together we can have a beneficial impact on the planet and a positive influence for future generations.”

Mark Bullingham

Ruaidhri Dunn, The FA’s Head of Procurement and Sustainability, added, “We are delighted to launch our new five-year Playing for the Future sustainability strategy during Net Zero Week, which sets out our clear direction of travel to drive positive change for the environment.

“We are very proud of our achievements in recent years to become more environmentally friendly, including Wembley Stadium being awarded the highest standard of sustainability by the ISO, however we want to make further progress. Our new strategy focuses on a number of key areas including reducing emissions, optimising resource consumption, plus governing and supporting wider change across football – and we look forward to driving forward with the next phase of our sustainability efforts.”

The full strategy is downloadable below.