How Bournemouth are lowering carbon emissions following Premier League promotion
- Zach Sampson
- May 6, 2022
- 4 min read
Bournemouth secured promotion to the Premier League after beating 3rd place Nottingham Forrest. The Cherries were relegated from the top division of English football after a five-year stint.
Seven minutes away from 90. 18 yards from goal. Phillip Billing stood over the ball; the Premier League waiting. After all, pressure makes pearls, right?
Stuart Attwell’s cacophonic whistle reverberated around the Vitality Stadium as the ball was cleverly played to Keiffer Moore, who was stood alone by the left post. As the ball rolled towards the Welshman, he stepped up and curled it round the keeper, nestling it into the side netting.
Moore’s goal guaranteed AFC Bournemouth automatic promotion by securing them second place in the Championship, behind league winners Fulham.
Promotion to the promised land of Premier League football brings high profile games where The Cherries will be playing against the best teams this country has to offer. However, games against high profile teams means fans will travel across the globe to see their favourite teams play, creating large amounts of carbon emissions.
Football has evolved a lot over the past few decades with the sport becoming a lot more environmentally conscious.
Whilst it is more aware of the damaging carbon emissions it produces; the footballing world is struggling to make a positive change.
Dangerous levels of carbon emissions already in football
The Rapid Transition Alliance reported that the 2018 World Cup was responsible for 2.16 million tonnes of carbon emissions. However, it is believed that figure could be much higher because it does not account for stadiums being built for the tournament.
Another shocking case of carbon emissions in football comes from the World Land Trust where they estimated that the 2018/19 Champions League Final – where Liverpool beat Spurs 2-0 – produced 8,693 tonnes of carbon. This is more than the city of Glasgow produces in a day; this can mostly be attributed to the flights that English fans took to Madrid.
The University of Essex found that travelling to and from football games can have a significant impact on the environment with the majority of spectators (67%) using cars and average travel emissions from this study were 4.74kgCO2e. This evidence is further backed up through this Twitter poll.
AFC Bournemouth's partnership with Beryl
AFC Bournemouth are encouraging fans and the wider community of Dorset to encourage a more sustainable lifestyle with their sponsorship with Beryl.
Beryl has 900 bikes and 250 e-scooters located around Bournemouth for the community to use, with rides starting at just 5p per minute.
The average car creates 171 grams of carbon emissions per km travelled so cycling or walking to watch your favourite team play is a lot more sustainable.
Since Beryl’s local scheme launched in 2019, over 691,000 journeys have been made over a distance of 2,558,000 km using bikes and scooters. It is believed that this has led to a saving of almost 94 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
A fan's perspective
James McCafferey is a lifetime Cherries fan and has consistently followed the men and women’s team home and away in his Blue 2017 Ford Custom van.
Mr McCafferey, who works in transport and logistics, revealed that he has to manage his road trips around his career, saying: “I plan my own away days with work and car sharing between friends. Home games are easily commutable by foot or bike whenever weather is favourable.”
When asked about how he would rate how environmentally conscious he is out of 10, he replied saying: “I’d say six – as I know I could do a lot better personally”
He continued, saying: “I have to be for my job and the 13 vehicles I operate and maintain.”
Reflecting on how he could improve, James went on to say: “I could share more trips with fellow fans or take the coaches that are provided by the club”.
AFC Bournemouth has a very strong family feel; this is created by the synergy between fans and the club. Mr McCaffery gave his boyhood club some advice on how to be greener.
“The club should provide coaches that are either run on eco fuel or they should be hybrids.”
Racing to the Vitality
To prove that leaving your car behind, and taking an alternative mode of transport to watch your favourite team, I raced two football fans against each other. Cam, who was cycling, would be competing against Lucy, who would be driving. Both people would start around 4 kilometres away from the Vitality Stadium.
Lucy drove to Bournemouth’s home ground in just six minutes and 24 seconds, beating Cam who cycled there in eight minutes and 21 seconds.
The car may have been victorious however, it was also only two minutes quicker. On the Beryl bike, Cam had to pay a total of 45p for his journey whilst it would have cost Lucy around 60p.
Not only did driving to the stadium cost more money, travelling to the stadium and back home put 1.026kg of carbon emissions into the atmosphere; cycling did not emit anything.
Reflecting on the race
Speaking to both competitors, Lucy was surprised by the results saying: “I’ve always tried to get the bus or walk for short journeys when I can but after finding out how much emissions cars produce, I will definitely consider the amount I’m driving”.
Cam furthered what Lucy said, explaining: “Throughout the race I wasn’t too far behind and if I was on my own bike the journey would have been completely free. Having a petrol or diesel car is becoming seemingly more and more unnecessary”
The Vitality Stadium is very accessible to the Boscombe community with it only being four kilometres away from the centre of Bournemouth, which is either a six-minute drive, a 17-minute cycle, or a 45-minute walk.
Football is evolving, do you want to be left behind?
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