Saints join Britain's biggest climate action football campaign
The Planet League Cup is a unique sustainability tournament where Southampton fans score goals for the club by completing green activities like having a meat-free meal, using the car less and filling up reusable bottles with tap water.
The tournament kicked off on Monday 10th October and runs for five weeks. Each week focuses on a particular theme, such as energy, food or travel, and the club whose fans take the most action will win the Planet League Cup. As well as taking the glory, the fan who scores the most goals will win a holiday in the UK.
Saints are competing alongside 77 other clubs for the coveted trophy, currently held by Cambridge United.
Football fans taking part in the Planet League Cup will have dozens of environmentally friendly actions to choose from to score goals. They include unplugging your appliances when they aren't in use, making the best of your food before it's too late with an ‘eat-me-first’ box, taking cooler and shorter showers and using public transport.
The ‘LayerUp’ challenge is a new activity for this season with a timely, serious message of putting on more layers of clothing instead of putting the heating on; to save energy and to save money. The LayerUp challenge, created in partnership with BBC Bitesize’s The Regenerators initiative, sees football players putting on as many layers of clothing as possible in 30 seconds.
Tom Gribbin, CEO Planet League, said: “Planet League Cup’s fun activities put football fandom at the centre of tackling climate change, but provide other important benefits, beyond the environment. Healthy eating and choosing active travel over using the car benefits our physical health; being efficient with energy, water and food saves us money; getting into nature and spending time with family and friends aids mental wellbeing.”
Caroline Carlin, Operations & Sustainability Manager for Southampton Football Club said: “We are delighted to be working with Planet League to encourage our fans to take climate action. There are so many different and fun ways for our fans and local communities to get involved. We hope this will empower people to take part and make small changes in their everyday life to help the planet.”
Southampton Football Club’s involvement in the Planet League Cup is part of its environmental responsibility pledge within The Halo Effect, which is committed to ensuring a sustainable future for the club, its fans, and its community. Through various initiatives, Southampton Football Club seeks to only live within its means and only ever use what it needs as well as giving more back to the planet than it takes away. Find out more about how the club is committed to giving its fans a voice here.
Fans who wish to take part in the Planet League Cup should head to planetleague.co.uk.
