The Green Football Weekend: How Sky Sports is helping to unleash the power of football to tackle climate change | Football News

Sky Sports and Sky Zero are part of The Green Football Weekend, a national campaign bringing more than 80 of the UK’s biggest football clubs, charity partners, sports broadcasters (Sky Sports and BT Sport) and millions of fans together to unleash the power of football to tackle climate change.

Sky is involved in Green Football Weekend between February 3 and 5 to raise awareness of climate change, and show the small ways football fans, and everyone, can make small changes to their lifestyles which can add up to make a big difference.

This is part of Sky Sports and Sky Zero’s ongoing commitment to help fans look after the sports they love and make sure there is always a place to play.

What is Sky Sports’ involvement in Green Football Weekend?

• Sky Sports will be encouraging fans to score green goals in the lead up to and across the weekend itself
• In the run up to Green Football Weekend, Sky Sports will be encouraging fans to score a green goal through…
  • A bespoke GFW promo being shown on promo air-time
  • A ‘layer-up’ social challenge that some of our football talent have taken part in
  • Features across SSN, including an interview with Ben Mee in the studio on TDD
• On Green Football Weekend, Sky Sports will have a whole range of dedicated sustainability related features, which will reference the campaign and show how fans can get involved
  • These will appear within Friday Night Football (Chelsea v Fulham) and Super Sunday (Forest v Leeds followed by Spurs v City) and also within our WSL matches (Leicester v City and West Ham v Arsenal) and our Saturday lunchtime EFL match (Norwich v Burnley)
  • Also looking at building pieces across other football programming (Soccer AM and Soccer Saturday)
  • There will be a creative takeover with a Sky Zero / Green Football Weekend logo lock-up across on-screen graphics, mic heads and umbrellas to help raise awareness and educate football fans.
  • We’re also working with the leagues about additional exposure through matchday furniture and LEDs

What impact will Green Football Weekend actually have?

• Every green goal will make a difference to our planet, as we know small changes can add up to make a big difference.
• Green Football Weekend is about the whole footballing community coming together to build their ambition and action on climate change
• If the UK’s 36 million fans adopted three climate-friendly habits across the course of the 20-day tournament – reducing their shower time to four minutes, having two meat-free days per week and turning the thermostat down by 1 degree – fans could save more than 700m kg CO2e, the equivalent of planting 11.78m trees.
• The benefits go beyond helping tackle climate change and protecting nature. In taking part, fans can also make significant savings on their household bills. By adopting these small changes for one year (reducing their shower time to four minutes, having two meat-free days per week and turning the thermostat down by 1 degree), fans could reduce their household bill by up to £728.
  • Replacing the average shower length in the UK with a 4-minute shower could knock £115 off your annual energy bill, and an extra £100 off your water bill if you’re on a meter. That’s a total saving of £215.
  • For an average 2.4 person household turning vegetarian two days a week, they would save £7.41 per week (£385.40 per year).
  • Turning your thermostat down by one degree can save up to £128 per year.

Why are Sky part of Green Football Weekend?

• We want to provide football fans with relevant information about climate change, so they can learn about how they can take small steps in their own lives, if they choose to, to play their part.
• We know everyone has a choice, and we are here to share the issues, and to offer easy, simple ways people can change their lifestyles to help stop climate change.
• We know it only takes 25 per cent of a group to adopt a new behaviour to create a new social norm – and given the universal passion for football, fans could help create a real cultural change, influencing business and governments to deliver bold solutions on a global scale.
• Through Green Football Weekend we want football fans to understand that climate change matters because it is impacting the things they love, including football, and they will therefore want to make a change.

Which leagues are part of Green Football Weekend?

• The EFL and WSL are both involved, helping to get all clubs involved in tackling climate change.
• The FA is also supporting the campaign, and the Premier League is supporting Sky and BT’s Green Football Weekend broadcast matches.

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