La Liga club Real Betis Balompié have launched a sustainability platform titled ‘Forever Green’ in order to fight against climate change.
The Forever Green program encourages companies and institutions to join up with Real Betis and show the world how they will commit to contributing to the future of the planet. Companies who sign up to the program will get the chance to work in collaboration with Real Betis on sustainability projects.
There are five areas to the Forever Green program – Climate change, recycling, mobility, nature and sustainability.
Real Betis has taken several steps in order to contribute to sustainability such as its to support of the Orosi Wind Farm in Costa Rica, an emissions reduction project.
The club also joined Amazon’s ‘The Climate Change Pledge’ which focuses on decarbonization via real changes and innovation.
Real Betis’ home ground, Benito Villamarín Stadium has had an LED lighting system installed while solar panels are also planned to be implemented at the ground.
“We want to be the most sustainable football club in the planet,” Real Betis President, Ángel Haro said at a presentation on Thursday for the Forever Green commitment.
“Taking advantage of our colours we want to be the greenest club, because we were green in the past, because we are green today and what’s most important, we want to continue being green forever because our children deserve this.”
In 2019, Real Betis became the first football club to commit to the United Nations’ ‘Climate Neutral Now’ initiative. This initiative involves organisations reducing their carbon footprints and offsetting carbon through certified projects.
“Like COVID-19, climate change is not something we will be able to forget about because it will impact all part our lives not least in the world of football.” Manager for the Global Climate Action team in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat, Niclas Svenningsen said at the presentation when speaking about climate change’s effect on football.
“Already today we see games being cancelled because of extreme weather, we see players suffering from exhaustion from heatwaves and we see audiences unable to follow their favourite teams in the way they want because of climate change impacts.”
The presentation was also attended by Spanish Secretary of State for Energy, Sara Aagesen. The President of La Liga, Javier Tebas, Real Betis Claudio Bravo player and Sally Fouts, from Climate Pledge Amazon also participated in the event via video messages and calls.
