Tottenham Hotspur Named as Premier League’s Greenest Club

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29 January 2021

The Sport Positive Summit has published its 2020 Premier League Sustainability Table, naming Tottenham Hotspur as the winner.

Having finished joint top alongside Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United in the 2019 standings, the rankings have now been updated, along with the criteria and methodology.

Clubs were asked to provide evidence of efforts in eight categories, with more points available in each category this year and three bonus points, making a total of 21. 

Tottenham Hotspur is the only club to achieve maximum points in this year’s standings - taking an outright lead ahead of Arsenal, Brighton and Man Utd on 20 points.

UN Sports for Climate Action Framework

The club has also announced it’s become a signatory of the UN Sports for Climate Action Framework, calling on sporting organisations to acknowledge the contribution of the sports sector to climate change and collective responsibility to strive towards climate neutrality for a safer planet.

Daniel Levy, Chairman, Tottenham Hotspur, said: “We are delighted that our efforts towards making Tottenham Hotspur the world’s most sustainable Club have been recognised by BBC Sport and the Sport Positive Summit.

“Looking to our future beyond the current pandemic, our message is that the climate needs to be at forefront of all our minds. We have seen people take greater pride in their environment during the lockdowns of the past year - when we return to normality, we cannot slip back into bad habits and lose sight of this.”

How Did Tottenham Hotspur FC Become Sustainable?

As well as picking up all standard points we had put in place for 2020, Tottenham also earned bonus points from activities such as tracking fan travel methods to games, actively engaging fans towards positive environmental behaviours and publicly committing to tackle climate change. 

Other green accolades include:

• 100 per cent certified renewable energy and zero scope 2 emissions, with REGO (Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin scheme)-backed electricity and carbon-neutral gas provided to the stadium by Brook Green Supply
• Building design which insulation, solar shading and building fabric thermal performance that reduces the need for additional energy usage
• 75m2 solar panels and air source heat pumps throughout its training centre
• LED lighting (including floodlights) and high-efficiency building services systems
• Intelligent controls, attenuation water tanks and green roofs on the Tottenham Experience
• The club is close to achieving its target of no more than 23 per cent of supporters (i.e. 14,250) travelling by private car on matchdays – a significant reduction in the percentage of fans that travelled by car to attend matches at the old White Hart Lane (on average 22,500 out of a total of 36,000)
• Bike racks around the stadium
• A digital ticketing process, eliminating the need for plastic Season Ticket/Membership cards or paper tickets
• No single-use plastics are used to serve food inside premium areas
• A zero-to-landfill waste management policy
• Dry mixed recycling bins are located throughout the stadium concourses, alongside general waste bins, with fans instructed on how to correctly dispose of their waste
• Food remaining from events is given to The Felix Project charity for distribution locally, reducing food waste
• Waterless urinals and low-flow fittings and fixtures
• At the Training Centre, a sedum "green roof" has been installed to significant portions of the main building to enable the capture and re-harvesting of rainwater across the site
• A comprehensive drainage and extraction system is in place through the installation of an attenuation pond and two onsite boreholes that extract water, with licences and agreement from the Environment Agency
• All menus across matchday food outlets, as well as The M on non-matchdays, include vegetarian and vegan options

You can read more about Mott MacDonald and Restrata have teamed up to develop a five-step strategy to get sports fans back into stadia and enjoying live sports.

Picture: a photograph showing the inside of Tottenham's stadium

Article written by Ella Tansley | Published 29 January 2021

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