How Greenfoot combines crowdfunding and sustainability in sports
The next ten years will determine if we meet the 1.5 degree global warming target or not. Sustainable actions in football can have a massive positive impact on the environment but the clubs can’t do it by themselves. What is perhaps more important: clubs and associations can inspire their fans and community to take action alongside them.
Jed Cohen, the Coordinator of the GREENFOOT Horizon 2020 project explained at the 15th EFDN Conference that a Life Tackle survey showed that a large percentage of club managers are primarily interested in the protection of its environment and the preservation of natural resources and that fans also value these actions as well as prevention of pollution. That is why crowdfunding is a good sustainability tool for clubs since it gives fans and the local community a unique opportunity that can help finance a project with low interest rates and makes it possible for them to directly team up with the club. The two common models are lending and equity in EU crowdfunding with fewer people participating while getting higher benefits. Reward-based crowdfunding is currently increasing and represents a high number of participants with a smaller quantity of money. With football uniting the popularity, community, interest and emotion of people, GREENFOOT uses these aspects and thus creates a transformational potential to make a difference in the fight against climate change.
In his presentation during the 15th EFDN Conference, Jed Cohen also described examples of large-scale sustainability actions in football that are being pursued through publicly funded projects. For more information and inspiration, the presentation can be found as a livestream on the conference platform and is also available as a PDF here on our website.
