Liverpool Football Club has been recognised at this year’s Sport Positive awards for their Red Way initiative which aims to improve sustainability.
The programme won the prestigious Transformation award and received a nomination in the Report of the Year category.
The Red Way was launched in January 2021 as part of Liverpool’s attempt to tackle climate change and boost equality, diversity and inclusion.
At the core of the initiative sits the three principles the club base their programme around: ‘Our People’, ‘Our Planet’ and ‘Our Communities’.
Since its inception, the project has enabled Liverpool to achieve a 15% reduction in Carbon emissions within two seasons – preventing an estimated 2,636 tonnes of CO2 being released into the atmosphere.
At the recent Sport Positive awards held in London last week, Liverpool beat off competition from other huge sporting organisations such as Arsenal FC, the Canadian Olympic Committee and the Atlanta Hawks to win the Transformation award.
Speaking to LFC.com, Rishi Jain, director of impact said: “The Transformation award highlights the scale of progress Liverpool FC has made over the past four years in embedding sustainability into everything we do internally and externally in the wider community. This accolade strengthens our determination to keep striving to lead the way, ensuring that the Red Way drives lasting change for our people, our planet and our communities.”
Whilst Liverpool’s initiative is making significant progress within reducing their own emissions, there’s still plenty of work to be done within the sport as a whole.
According to a recent study conducted by Earth.org, the global football industry produces more than 30 million tonnes of carbon emissions globally, which is roughly the equivalent of the total emissions generated by Denmark.
In March last year, UEFA launched their ‘carbon footprint calculator’ designed to help football organisations understand and lower their emissions.
UEFA is working closely with the United Nations and pushing for net zero by 2040, a date which is also outlined by Liverpool within their 2025 Red Way report.
Speaking on the growing issue of climate change within football, a spokesperson for Football for Futures said: “An unprecedented number of fixtures are being rearranged or cancelled due to weather at both a professional and grassroots level.
“We need to create the biggest movement the world has ever seen, to tackle the biggest threat that humanity has ever faced.
“With more than three billion fans worldwide, football has unparalleled potential to drive climate action.”
The English FA have released their own sustainability programme, ‘Playing for the Future’.
Ruaidhri Dunn, the FA’s Head of procurement and Sustainability said: “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.”
Whilst initiatives such as Liverpool’s Red Way are major successes in addressing climate issues, further work is needed to make football a more sustainable sport.
