Episode 48 A joint podcast with the ’Outside Write’ podcast: How can football be more sustainable and reduce it’s impact on the environment?

Thank you for your interest in the BvB London fan community podcast as every week the focus of the show will be on exploring a facet of football life with a focus on Borussia Dortmund by talking to experts, fans, and players and coaches. 

People, including journalists, who make up the football world including decision-makers and who know the football world and the world of BVB well.

The aim of the podcast is to make Bundesliga, BVB and international football more accessible.

On today's show, a football and climate change special co-produced with Chris Lee of The Outside Write podcast our guests are Katie Cross of Pledgeball and Moritz Eckert of Guterfussball. 

Pledgeball works by encouraging fans to make pledges in support of their team and the environment every match day.

The way it works is whilst the teams compete on the pitch, fans compete virtually by choosing from a list of pledges ranging from using a reusable cup to installing solar panels.

The team of fans that pledges to save the most carbon emissions wins that fixture. Pledgeball is a fan-led initiative which encourages clubs and fans to cooperate to change the way they operate to help reduce the impact on the environment. 

Guter Fussball is a Germany-based initiative which encourages clubs to act in a more environmentally friendly way. 

The guys at Guter Fussball have created a football table with a difference in their table scientific studies are supplemented with quantitative, qualitative and anecdotal data to produce a table where clubs are measured not just by points on the playing field but sorted based on their values.

The values include fan participation, environmental sustainability, fair play, tolerance, credibility and gender equality of opportunity.

Outside Write is a podcast series looking at the football supporter's experience and world including history, politics and culture essentially everything except what goes on on the pitch. The podcast has had over 250,000 downloads so far. Here are the talking points:  

Some key discussion points on the show:

1. What football clubs, authorities and fans can be doing to make football more sustainable?

2. What clubs are leading by example and what are they doing?

3. What is football's carbon footprint and how can it be reduced?

4. Would it make sense to restructure football to reduce the impact on the environment?

5. What impact do football kits have on landfills and how can this be reduced? 

6. What can clubs do to raise funds to help environmental causes? 

7. What steps can fans actively take to reduce our impact on climate change? 

8. How does the approach of Bundesliga clubs like Dortmund differ from Premier League and other leagues in terms of environmental policy?

09. Social media and projects 

We hope you enjoy the show, remember to send us your comments, share the show with friends and to apply for tickets contact the club via the website which is borussiadortmundlondon.co.uk or join the London BvB community at our online group at Facebook.com/borussiadortmundfanclubengland.

During the season you can also come to watch a game at our meet-up Stammtisch at the Naughty Bar, just off Oxford Street, in Cleveland street central London.

 

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