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Sustainability round-up: June 8, 2023
This week’s sustainability round-up features The Ocean Race and its recycled flags, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team utilising biofuels for its logistics trucks, Chelsea’s social impact efforts in its local community, Reading FC Women’s goal of a sustainable business model, and FC Barcelona’s NFTs tackling plastic waste.
The Ocean Race, Norwegian clothing and sports equipment manufacturer Helly Hansen and supply chain stakeholders have taken steps towards textiles circularity, by recycling events flags into new flags for the first time. The Ocean Race, a yacht race around the globe, saw stops in The Hague and Genova utilise flags that had originally flew in the cities during The Ocean Race Europe in 2021.
The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team is targeting a 60% emissions reduction and 200t CO2 saving through the use of biofuel for Formula 1’s European season. Following a successful trial in 2022, which saw an 89% reduction in CO2 freight emissions, the team’s fleet of Mercedes-Benz Actros trucks will be fuelled with HVO100.
During May half-term in the UK, participants from the Premier League Kicks programme in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and Hammersmith and Fulham, came together to take part in a ‘paddle in the park’ exercise with Chelsea FC. The challenge involved 20 participants using a litter pickers to collect waste while kayaking on the Grand Union Canal courtesy of London Sports Trust. The children learned about their own carbon footprints and how they could reduce this, focusing mainly on transport and food.
Following its relegation from the English Women’s Super League, Reading FC Women will switch to operating on a part-time basis for the 2023-24 season. The club’s owner Dai Yongge has revealed that even on top of sponsorship, boosted gate receipts and broadcast revenue earned during the club’s time in the WSL, just under £1m (€1.1m/$1.2m) was still required to finance the women’s side. The announcement by Yongge comes just weeks after the Reading men’s team was deducted six points – and suffered relegation from the second-tier Championship as a result – after having been found to have breached the English Football League’s profit and sustainability rules.
Spanish LaLiga club FC Barcelona has launched a NFT (non-fungible token) collection in association with Plastiks, a sustainability focused Web3 platform. During one football match, more than 8,000 kg worth of plastic waste is generated, and the first NFT collection will help to reduce plastic pollution of an amount equivalent to the waste from four football matches. With eight million tonnes dumped in the ocean each year, the partnership will support the recovery of at least one million kilogrammes of plastic – the equivalent of 35 million one-litre plastic bottles. The Spanish club is aiming to utilise its social media platforms and networks, along with its foray into Web3 to promote sustainability.
Image: Alberto-g-rovi/ CC BY 3.0/ Edited for size