Kicking off our campaign to call out fossil-fuel loving football
We are at the start of running a campaign for our ethical finance client, Path Financial, that calls for the football industry to divest millions from fossil fuels by choosing green pension options and green investments.
Our aim for this campaign is to raise awareness of how much change the football industry would make if players, head coaches and chief execs of clubs had private pensions that veered towards investing in a greener future. Especially when the international sport is one that would be undeniably affected by climate change.
We want the industry to take in the flooded and frozen pitches, unbearable heat and the international community that play the ‘beautiful game’ and realise that they should be giving fossil fuels the red card.
The problem
There are stark warnings that the global football industry produces at least 30 million tons of carbon dioxide every year – about the same as a small country such as Denmark – and the footballing world has come under intense scrutiny over their carbon-intensive antics in recent years; just last year, FIFA were slammed for making false claims about Qatar being the first “net zero” world cup. It is crystal clear that more can be done by the footballing industry to use their power, influence and – most importantly – investments, to deliver on a serious effort to reduce the sport’s climate impact.
The campaign
As part of our campaign, we did an analysis of how much Premier League footballers could be investing in green initiatives. With the average annual wage of a Premier League footballer hitting an eyewatering £3 million and showing no signs of slowing down, if these players invested just 5% of their earnings into green pensions and investments then at least £60 million could go towards bettering the planet through green initiatives. If they all upped this to 10% of their earnings this could become a whopping £120 million a year.
From this analysis we created a press release to go out to sports journalists and reporters, as well as pitching to well-known footballing podcasts and radio shows to start the discussion surrounding green pensions in the world of sport.
Our support
We created some cool graphics for Path’s social media, which had some footballing fans! Danish professional Sofie Junge Pedersen and New Zealand player Katie Rood – who are both outspoken climate activists – liked the posts on Instagram and Twitter. This made us think about how we could get more footballers involved in our campaign! A message response from Rangers midfielder Tessel Middag pointed us in the direction of Fossil Free Football, another organisation who are committed to keeping polluting companies out of football.
With the help of Path, a landing page was created to point people to Path’s website when the campaign gains traction. We’ve already had some support from other climate positive movements in the sporting world – such as Sport Positive and their founder and CEO Claire Poole – and we’re going to connect more and more with other sports movements making positive changes.
We Play Green, Football for Future and Green Football Weekend are some great examples of organisations built on the idea that sports and sustainability should never be placed at odds.
Please get in contact with emily@highrisecommunications.co.uk to learn more and get involved! And read more about our client Path here!