World’s first carbon positive football club revealed
STOKE ON TRENT, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 28: Papiss Cisse of Newcastle is congratulated on his goal by team mates during the Barclays Premier League match between Stoke City and Newcastle United at Britannia Stadium on November 28, 2012 in Stoke on Trent, England.
Newcastle United have become the first football club to become a carbon positive football club, the club has announced. The club has been working with GET Solutions a firm providing day-to-day operational visibility of the club’s power usage, with a mobile application that allows remote monitoring of minute detail such as lights left switched on inside the club, and Carbon Neutral Investments (CNI) an organisation specializing in the procurement, sale and retirement of Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) credits and supports projects around the world, towards the same and has now gone beyond zero emissions by off-setting more carbon than the operation emits.
The following has been achieved by doing all the small things correctly to reduce energy consumption without compromising on operational requirements and by offsetting the club’s residual carbon footprint. Boiler optimization, burner management, lighting upgrades, bore holes, energy monitoring and behavioural changes within the operational staff.
This is what Eddie Rutherford, Facilities Manager at Newcastle United, said,
“It’s all about savings, savings, savings. The less energy we use, the less carbon we emit and the less impact we have on the environment, both locally and globally. It is a balance between achieving this and maintaining the very high operational standards required of a Premier League club. With the help of GET Solutions we have more than achieved this, and now with the support of CNI in off-setting the residual carbon footprint, it is a proud day for us to announce that NUFC is world’s first carbon positive football club.”
The club has been working on the project since 2009 and now finally has become the first football club to be a carbon positive football club.
As a life long Newcastle supporter it feels me with tremendous pride that the club recognizes its Social responsibility and have been acting to do their bit for the environment. The clubs get a lot of criticism at times but this is a moment where no amount of praise is enough. The current environment in which we live and breathe actions like these are priceless.
I am sure that other clubs around the world are doing their bit too and hopefully they will also be able to achieve such fantastic results.