The University of Reading partners with the Royals as we look to take our first, crucial steps to improve the environmental sustainability of the club going forward
At Reading Football Club, we want to be better. Put simply, we have to be better. On the pitch and off it!
We will leave the squad building to Mark Bowen and Paul Ince and the goalscoring to Lucas Joao and Yakou Meite. Off the pitch though, we will all take on a share of an enormous responsibility…
Reading Football Club are delighted to announce a new, progressive partnership with the University of Reading which will guide the club into a more environmentally aware and sustainable future.
Today is #ShowYourStripes Day – an increasingly prominent date in the calendar, raising awareness about climate change using a ‘Climate Stripes’ infographic which visually demonstrates how temperatures have risen over a long period of time.
On our very doorstep, we boast some of the world’s leading climate scientists, who have emerged as global pioneers in communicating climate science. The bold climate stripes, created by Professor Ed Hawkins, clearly show the blue verticals transforming to hotter shades of red in recent years. The stripes compellingly illustrate the rise in average annual temperatures for towns, regions, countries or continents.
The #ShowYourStripes campaign has been supported by UN Climate Change, the World Meteorological Organisation and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who used the stripes to help build momentum towards the UN Climate Change Conference Cop26 in Glasgow last November. And a new book titled ‘The Climate Book’ penned by activist Greta Thunberg will feature the warming stripes on its cover later this year. Now ‘Show Your Stripes’ has a new advocate in Reading Football Club.
The stripes are designed to start conversations around the climate crisis and inspire action. Reading Football Club are near the start of that conversation, but are beginning to take action.
We recently hosted members of the University of Reading’s sustainability team at the stadium, establishing what we are doing well now as a club before using the university expertise and research to workshop how we can improve our sustainable practices going forward.
We’re not starting from scratch. Our groundstaff use electric-powered mowers to keep our pitches in pristine condition, we have begun a transition to LED lighting across both the stadium and training ground complex and we continue to heavily subsidise local matchday bus travel to encourage supporters to leave the car behind when they come to cheer on their team.
But we can do much, much more.
So, we will embark on a number of wide-ranging carbon-reduction initiatives as part of an overarching Environmental Sustainability strategy which we believe will help us begin to play our small part:
- Exploring opportunities to use technologies that generate renewable electricity or heat at the stadium and training ground
- Working with our Principal Partner, Select Car Leasing, to establish the viability of installing EV charging points
- Improving cycle facilities for supporters and raising awareness of these facilities amongst our fans
- Presenting home and away fans with the knowledge and the tools to recycle within the concourses
- Reducing paper use, recycling glass bottles and minimising food waste levels at the stadium
- Proactively monitoring the water, electricity and gas we use as an organisation
- Implementing reusable or recyclable cup solutions from the stadium service kiosks
- Sourcing food and supplies more carefully and sustainably
- Educating our supporters and our key stakeholders in sustainability best practice
And, perhaps most importantly, we can educate ourselves and our supporters by championing the achievable methods we can all adopt to make our way of life more sustainable for the future.
This is the beginning of a long journey, not an ego-trip. We will not aim to change the world overnight, nor greenwash our stakeholders; blind our fans with complex science, nor preach to our supporters – but instead make coherent and cost-effective steps, where we possibly can, to reduce our carbon footprint. It’s important that we give you the opportunity to come with us on that journey.
Let’s also be clear…we are not the new Forest Green Rovers. And we will not pretend to be, nor assume we will immediately rival the sustainability progress they have made in recent seasons. We may not be perfect, but, much like the majority of our fans in our stands, we can be better and help achieve a brighter future for our planet.
In partnering for progress, can we achieve some of these aims without our fans’ help? Yes. Would it be easier and more impactful with the backing of our supporters? Definitely. We want you to #ShowYourStripes and join us in our #HoopsForTheFuture.
We hope this pioneering sustainability-led partnership with one of the leading universities in this field can inspire more climate conversations and that through action at the stadium and with the buy in from Reading fans everywhere, we can all play our part.
