Partners Hold Greenfoot Kick-Off Meeting

Partners Hold Greenfoot Kick-Off Meeting

The European Football for Development Network (EFDN) joined project partners for kick-off meetings of the new Horizon 2020 GReen power and Energy Efficiency iNvestments community-Financed (GREENFOOT) programme. The project will develop and implement a community-based financing scheme for renovating football buildings including stadiums, practice facilities and related buildings (e.g. team headquarters, fitness centres) with energy efficiency and renewable energy measures.

Project Manager Lewis Walker and Programme & Partnerships Manager Robert Maaskant represented EFDN at the two webinars on 24 Thursday and 25 Friday September. At the first online meeting, all partners introduced themselves and their organisation and specifically those involved in the project. Other discussions also centred on why partners are interested in the GREENFOOT approach. EFDN presented about its programmes and how we connect with football clubs and their fans. This ranged from how to get in touch with fans from clubs, get in touch with clubs, the type of actions that would interest clubs and outlook for making the project a highly replicated solution.

The central social innovation of GREENFOOT is to develop creative crowdfunding investment packages that allow sports fans and community members to partner with their favourite clubs to improve energy use, fight climate change and contribute to a cleaner local environment. The project includes international football organisations as partners, a strong link with UEFA that EFDN looks forward to collaborating with.

The concept is to finance football building energy efficiency renovations and renewable energy installations through a crowd-funding scheme that propels Europeans to become active participants in the energy transition through their love of football.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 893858