Reaching carbon-neutral status a 'big achievement', says Redditch United chairman
The club believes it is only the second football club in the world to achieve being classed as carbon-neutral
Redditch United's chairman has said sustainability is a focus for them both on and off the pitch, after becoming what it believes to be only the second football club in the world to reach carbon-neutral status.
The club recently confirmed it had officially achieved it after it had asked Neutral Carbon Zone (NCZ) to complete a "comprehensive" emissions assessment that covered all operational and organisational activities for the 2023–24 reporting period.
The findings showed the club produced 208.58 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (COâ‚‚e) during the year from all types of emissions.
It revealed most of the club’s emissions came from purchased goods and services, which accounted for 87.80% of the total, while commuting and homeworking by staff made up a further 7.25%.
Following the report it has now announced it has reached carbon-neutral status as it has "reduced its carbon emissions wherever possible and balanced the remaining emissions through certified environmental measures".
"That report gave us a starting point as our carbon footprint and then we've managed to offset that, making us the second carbon neutral football club in the world, which is quite a big achievement," said chairman David Faulkner.
"I've been at the club five and a half years now as chairman and we've got this ambition of being sustainable, I know in this context it's all about environmentally sustainable, but I'm on about more in the context of the football club which is 130-years-old and I want it to be there in the future.
"So the key thing for us is all about being sustainable, so we understood especially the way the world's been last few years, if we can get a grip on our energy consumption make the right investments, things such as the floodlights are LED for example, things like that we've put in place, that's enabled us to sort of reduce that."
The club added it will be using findings in the report as the foundation for ongoing emissions reduction.