GreenCode plume to Bristol City F.C. beret

Image: Bristol City FC

The English Football League (EFL) Championship club Bristol City F.C. has become the first club to earn GreenCode Accreditation in the EFL Green Clubs scheme.

‘Bristol City FC’ stated that the GreenCode is an environmental accreditation company which assesses clubs across 26 environmental and sustainability criteria, with 76 points required to gain GreenCode accreditation.

The Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England (UK), which competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at the Ashton Gate Stadium in Bristol, England, since moving from the now-closed St John’s Lane in 1904.

The Ashton Gate Stadium is a multiuse stadium in Ashton Gate, Bristol, England (UK), and is the home of the Bristol City football club and the Bristol Bears rugby union team. Located in the South-West of the City, just South of the River Avon, it currently has an all-seated capacity of 27,000.

Mark Kelly, Managing Director, Ashton Gate Limited, UK, is a Member of Coliseum – Global Sports Venue Alliance.

The Bristol Bears are a professional rugby union club based in Bristol, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England’s top division of rugby.

Preston (UK)-based the English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world.

The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship in England and for sponsorship purposes as the Sky Bet Championship, is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the English Football League system, after the Premier League, and is currently contested by 24 clubs.

‘Bristol City FC’ further stated that following a recent audit, the Bristol City achieved a score of 80, making the club the first to earn GreenCode Accreditation since the launch of the EFL Green Clubs Scheme in 2021. EFL Green Clubs sees clubs initially assessed on their operations, before being given bespoke guidance and practical advice on how to implement change in their environmental operations.

The EFL Green Clubs is a voluntary environmental support and accreditation scheme open to all the EFL clubs. The scheme’s delivery partner, GreenCode, assesses clubs’ environmental performance and offers steps for continual improvement.

The GreenCode Standards were established to support organizations that understand their responsibility to do better – for the environment and for consumers. Every organization can do more, no matter what sustainability measures are currently in place. GreenCode invites businesses of all shapes and sizes to ‘Join the Journey’.

Bristol City are the first club to achieve the accreditation since the EFL Green Clubs launched, while the EFL League Two club Forest Green Rovers F.C., widely acknowledged as the greenest club in football, have also held the standard since the launch of the scheme.

The awarding of GreenCode Accreditation is recognition of a remarkable first year for the Bristol Sport groupwide sustainability initiative, Project Whitebeam.

Project Whitebeam is a joint initiative between Bristol City, Bristol Bears, Bristol Flyers, the Ashton Gate Stadium, and Bristol Sport to recognize, measure and mitigate impact on the environment. The clubs have signed up to the UN Sport for Climate Action Framework with Race to Zero targets of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and being net zero by 2040.

The Bristol Flyers are a British professional basketball team based in the City of Bristol, England. The Flyers compete in the British Basketball League, after promotion from the English Basketball League in 2014. The team play their home games at the 1,000-capacity SGS WISE Arena in Bristol. The Flyers’ head coach is Andreas Kapoulas.

Bristol Sport is a commercially focused company driving the off-field success of our clubs and venues. We use the collective power of our sporting group to drive sustainable success. The goal is to be champions in all that they do, elevating Bristol as a dynamic, exciting fixture on the global sport and entertainment map.

Ashton Gate now generates over 100,000 kWh of electricity through solar panels, uses energy-efficient lighting, has water saving devices, and has zero waste to landfill.

Over 50 percent of the food and drink served in the stadium has been sourced from less than 12 miles away, with vegetarian and vegan food available at all concessions, while surplus matchday food is donated to a women’s homeless shelter less than a mile away. For games away from home members of club staff deliver food from the team hotel to shelters for the homeless and refugees in the local area of the opponent City are playing against.

Subsidized bus travel has also significantly cut the carbon footprint of supporters traveling to the ground, while the club’s fans have won the Pledgeball League for the second successive year for their individual sustainability efforts.

Bristol City has received further recognition for their environmental efforts, winning EFL Green Club of the Year in 2023 and the Football Supporters’ Association Climate Action Award and was ranked as the Championship’s most sustainable club by Sport Positive.

Said Peter Smith, Head of Change and Sustainability at Ashton Gate, “We’re delighted to gain GreenCode accreditation following a thorough audit process. This shows that clubs can make system-level changes which will have numerous benefits for them, the community and the environment.”

Stated Gavin Marshall, Bristol Sport head honcho, “This is a wonderful achievement and one that we’re very proud of. It caps a very positive first year for Project Whitebeam and gives us a great foundation to work from as we continue to make positive changes.”

Added Trevor Birch, EFL Chief Executive, “Since the EFL Green Clubs scheme was launched with GreenCode to help clubs improve their environmental sustainability, we have been delighted with the enthusiasm and uptake of the scheme across the divisions. It is fantastic to see Bristol City’s efforts recognized for work, which is not only improving club operations, but also making a real impact on the environment and the local community.”

GreenCode said, “We’re delighted to award Bristol City FC GreenCode certification as part of the EFL Green Clubs initiative. Through Project Whitebeam, Bristol City has demonstrated a real commitment to reducing their impact on the environment and being a really positive force for change in football. It has been a fantastic collective effort by so many people to achieve this standard and the GreenCode Mark is recognition of that hard work.”

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