How can a sports club go green?

There are lots of ways a sports club can make a positive difference in its efforts to go green. Sounds good but what does that mean in reality?

It’s about being more environmentally-friendly, using sustainable products, reducing your carbon footprint and lessening the negative impact your club has on the planet.

If all of that feels overwhelming or unrealistic, it doesn’t have to be. Whatever steps your club chooses to take today, it wasn’t doing it yesterday – so you’re off to a start!

One approach to take is to consider how your club, members and supporters can: reduce, reuse and recycle.

Here are some ideas, you might be doing a few already or it could spark a conversation and lead to a new initiative.

Recycling sports kit

Sports clubs have all manner of processes that could potentially incorporate recycling and there are lots of organisations that can signpost resources (see here). 

Saying No to Plastic

Thanks to documentaries like BBC Blue Planet II and many other pieces of research, the scourge of plastic pollution is more apparent than ever before - and we can all do our bit. 

Reducing carbon emissions

According to the Committee on Climate Change, the majority of carbon emissions in the UK comes from energy production and consumption. That could be boiling a kettle for a brew or driving a car to a match.

Support local

The distance food and other products have to travel to get to us can be astonishing and all those miles travelled are polluting the planet. A major way to reduce that is by shopping locally and supporting businesses on a sport club’s doorstep.

So, there you go, some ideas on going green that clubs can implement. You can read more detail on all of this on our website. 

Funding

Here are some funding opportunities your club may want to consider applying to. If you're looking for support with your fundraising, get in touch.

Our Services

Here are some funding opportunities your club may want to consider applying to. If you're looking for support with your fundraising, get in touch about our specialist support.

Resources

News, Ideas & Opinions

Here's a selection of stories from our world and beyond that might give your club some ideas for new activities or programmes.

How sports clubs can rebuild post-lockdown

Are sports clubs open? It's the question on everyone's lips (and in their Google searches).

Sports clubs, of all shapes and sizes, face a huge challenge in the coming months, as we look ahead to the return of some kind of relative normality.

Of course, it’s worth emphasising that playing club sport is being done in phases, differently in each country and in line with Government advice. Please check carefully.

Front and centre will be the financial future of your club and how to encourage members back to play, socialise and support.

So, here are some website-related ideas to help sports clubs get ready for that all-important green light.

‘Let’s create something unique to Scotland’

CURRENT Scotland coaches Gregor Townsend and Shelley Kerr view community and school sport as central to the nation’s recovery from COVID-19 and the health of Scotland.

Both Kerr and Townsend took on their current roles as Scotland women’s football head coach and Scotland men’s rugby head coach respectively in 2017, and the duo this week joined the Observatory for Sport in Scotland’s latest ‘OSS Supporters Meeting’, via Zoom, to discuss their journeys and challenges with COVID-19.

On the challenges post-COVID-19, the national coaches agreed sports working together was going to be crucial to helping communities recover.

• Find out more.

Sport for Scotland’s older generation on the up?

New research has suggested that many more of Scotland’s older population are taking up sport as they near or enter retirement than was previously believed.

With the advent of walking sports, netball and rugby latching on to the success of ‘Walking Football’ to inspire engagement among the older population, and growth of Park Runs and JogScotland events, there has been a growing belief that Scotland’s trend of ongoing decline in sport from the teenage years may finally be uncovering a very welcome spike. A new study conducted in 2019 would appear to back this up, at least in some sports and parts of Scotland.

- Read more here.

Most Of Scotland’s Leisure Centres ‘May Never Re-Open’ Due To Covid-19

The long-term impact of COVID-19’s lockdown is starting to emerge in Scotland with concerns rising that most of Scotland’s sport and leisure facilities will not re-open.

Scotland’s sporting infrastructure relies heavily on community facilities owned by local authorities and managed, in most areas, by leisure trusts. Most trusts have suffered annual reductions in council investment for the past 15 years and some facilities were earmarked for closure pre-COVID. Now, having lost five months of income due to lockdown and facing forecasts of reduced income at least through 2021 due to so social distancing, it is understood that several operators can no longer fund the staffing and maintenance of key sport facilities.

• Read more here.