Playmouth Argyle players have not yet returned home after a FA Cup tie against Manchester City on Saturday. The club’s commitment to make environmentally conscious travel choices means that they are traveling to play Hull on Tuesday night.
Football -related trips create 56.7 tonnes of CO2E per season only for Premier League clubs, with 85 % of the broadcasts being attributed to the flight. Plymouth is one of the 14 clubs registered on a new map that is committed to more green behavior.
“Feels great”, Katie Cross, CEO of Commitmentshe says Sports. “We started for the first time in 2023 with just six clubs and the goal was to reduce the number of domestic matches in English football.
Cross adds: “Occupation of 14 clubs now, including a large number of league clubs, very happy to sign the map, is a real reflection on the importance given to sustainability and especially by individuals within these clubs.
“These are people who have personal appetite to truly lead viability.
Plymouth, under President Simon Hallett, was always likely to be at the forefront of this initiative. Cross describes them as “an amazing club in terms of culture” with a revenue model that is very different from the rule – not every decision is commercial.
“It was a piece of a trip for us in recent years,” says Christian Kent Sky Sports. Kent is the head of Plymouth’s conferences and events. “I am very proud of the progress we have made. We have half down our broadcasts in two years.”
He explains: “We do things like solar panels and rainwater harvesting, but then there are small touches. We have been digital with tickets, we use electric vehicles, small steps can make a big change.
“If you look at a sport like Formula 1. What are the biggest polluting in terms of the sports world. They have made a big statement that it is clean zero by 2030.
Why does Plymouth take the lead on it? “Obviously, the game with green is really important to us,” Kent is joking. But this is the creation of a culture that comes from the top of the organization, from Hallett, Managing Director Andrew Parkinson and the rest.
“You need it from the Board of Directors to every staff member, the whole team must come together. Everyone is playing their role here and living these values. We want to be viable not only financially but in an environmental sense.”
The captain of Plymouth Argyle Joe Edwards believes this is a unique football club
Joe Edwards, a captain of Plymouth, is among those who have embraced the values ​​of the club. Now 34, he joined Walsall six years ago. He knows that the location makes the trip a hot topic. “It’s a challenge, but that’s what makes it so special,” he says.
“This is a unique club and it is fantastic to participate in this.
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Logistics means that Plymouth is flight, but limiting the number and try to be creative. “We don’t have to fly to every game,” says Edwards. Therefore, the decision to remain north among the luminaires, a serious commitment to the club that, given the cost of the hotel.
How do players feel that they are long for so long? “They vary, these with the kids sometimes miss them. Sometimes it’s very nice to have a break!” Edwards has twin boys, five, and this has only sharpened the mind when it comes to the environment.
“Are they taught about it at school, which is great. I think they come back with small things, when you have a new family that is growing up. You want to have the safest and the cleanest environment for them, it really has pointed out the issue for me.
“When you sign here, you sign knowing the location, you sign for it, I often enjoy the logistics of getting to places because you have a lot of time together as a team, but I can imagine it is completely different in a Premier League club.”
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Cross understands it better than most. He is reluctant to call individual clubs, but he has heard the stories of flights for impressive short trips. “It’s a completely strange situation and many fans call it because it’s such a visible thing,” he explains.
“You could say that it is a small percentage of their total broadcasts, but the normalization of this behavior is not measurable.
“We know from research that more than 80 percent of fans are worried about climate change. They want their clubs to take more action, but they are silent and so they do not know the concern of others. They are worried that they will laugh at their growth.
“The accelerating players will have a huge impact. There is cautiousness from them because, of course, they are part of this system, not necessarily through choice, many of them do not want to fly, but worry they will be called to be hypocritical.
“William Troost-Ekong, the Nigerian Captain, is very honest that he has no choice, he is in this carbon intensity system, but he does what he can do for all of us.
“We don’t need everyone to be perfect. What we really don’t need are some to be perfect and others are worried about being perfect. They take no action.
“Whether he makes viable choices in our own behavior, talking to family and friends about it, talking to our club, talking to our businesses, voting with our feet when it comes to consumerism, people do not realize how impact we can have.”
Hope is that this map can inspire substantial change. Cross and Pledgeball have experienced a “very little push” from clubs in the football league, but there is an estimate that Premier League riches bring with it different pressures.
Cutting flights would mean a competitive advantage to their opponents. But if the football clubs had to commit, it could bring a change to the sea to thought. “We need this pressure from peer. Isn’t it?” Supporters will begin to require better.
“Very quickly. It could become the new rule. Think about what happened with the smoking ban.
“And here the rule is that, in essence, the clubs choose to harm the air we breathe quite significantly when it is not absolutely necessary to do so.” With clubs like the plymouth that drive the road, the ambition is to show that there is another way.
