The Scottish FA and Scottish Professional Football League are committed to playing their part in creating a more sustainable national game, with the home of Scottish football and the headquarters of the respective organisations, Hampden Park, at the forefront of measures to reduce the impact on our environment.
As the governing body, the Scottish FA has recently published its best practice guidelines, Environmental Sustainability in Scottish Football, and will commit to even more stringent measures as part of its new strategy, The Power of Scottish Football, over the next decade.
With the growing climate crisis there is a need to implement measures to ensure sustainability throughout society. In 2016 FIFA became the first international sports organisations to join the United Nations’ Sports for Climate Action and we will utilise the framework to help clubs – and our people – consider their impact, showcase the journey others have undertaken and ultimately strive to create sustainable organisations that work with their communities to achieve the best possible results.
Always at the heart of their local communities, there is a huge opportunity for Scottish football clubs to lead the way in reducing the impact they have on the environment. Not only at home in the community but also abroad, setting an example internationally for other clubs to follow.
Hampden Park, Scotland’s National Stadium, welcomes hundreds of thousands of spectators and visitors each year and with being at the heart of our national sport, delivering world class events and welcoming guests on a daily basis, comes responsibility.
In line with the vision for Sustainable Glasgow we will contribute to making Glasgow one of Europe’s most sustainable cities and Hampden Park will be the most sustainable stadia in Scotland.
The Scottish FA has made significant improvements to the stadium as part of its co-hosting of UEFA EURO 2020 which have included:-
- Upgrading floodlights to a new interactive and energy-efficient LED system.
- Upgrading all internal and external lighting to low energy LED
- Ongoing commitment to zero waste in landfill with our partners Zero Waste Scotland.
- Commitment to separating all office waste at source.
- Enhancement of active travel commitment, including new bike shelters and parking provision.
- EV charging points in the stadium car park.
- Transport Group formed to increase public transport provision, including additional train services and express bus services to and from the city centre.
- Vegan food counters and more sustainable packaging in the stadium bowl, with locally sourced suppliers to our new café menu
- E-ticketing platform replacing manual ticket printing.
In support of Scotland’s world-leading climate change targets, we have set out to reduce carbon emissions from energy, waste and water (currently 2802 tonnes of CO2e) by 10% by the end of this year. To help achieve this we will continue to:-
- Send zero waste direct to landfill
- Achieve awards for environmental excellence
- Support all those that come through our gates to make healthy food choices
- Assist all stadium users and visitors in choosing active travel for their journeys
- Make improvements to our grounds to enhance biodiversity
- Reduce operating costs by improving stadium infrastructure
- Champion behavioural change to promote sustainability at our stadium
- Engage with the community to share Hampden as a community asset
- Deliver an accessible stadium that embraces our diverse spectators’ and visitors’ individual requirements