The ambitious ways Sunderland intend to achieve Stadium of Light and Academy plans

Sunderland AFC’s pledge to become one of the greenest clubs in the world is the very opposite of sportswashing and it will be fascinating to see how it plays out in practice.

In a sport sometimes in danger of collapsing under its own moral contradictions in recent years, it may simply be no more than a positive footnote

But, equally, it might mark a movement across the board, of clubs genuinely re-examining their environmental and social responsibilities, as well as using renewable technologies to boost their balance sheets.

One thing we can be certain of at the Stadium of Light though is this: it’s happening.

In February, the club announced bold goals of being the first in the UK to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040 and energy self-sufficiency by 2028.

Along with that announcement came details of a raft of renewable initiatives: a solar farm at the Academy of Light, geothermal energy from under the Stadium of Light, and a solar canopy across the car parks to power the football ground to power the stadium and other local businesses

Energy-efficient LED lighting would be put in the floodlights at Eppleton FC, where Sunderland’s reserves and Women both play, and installed across all the club’s facilities while there would be new policies on waste, water, and match-day travel and emissions.

The sustainability plan dovetails with the United Nation’s goals of halving emissions by 2030 and achieving net-zero by 2040 and it is the ambition of SAFC to become the first football club in the UK to achieve those targets.

It was a bold statement of intent but not one that was casually or complacently made.

“We wanted to make a clear statement so that people could hold us to it, explains SAFC chief operations director, Steve Davison.

“We’re not interested in greenwashing, we wanted to make that clear from the start which is one of the reasons why we also introduced five-year targets.

“People should expect us to be making progress on our goals in the near and medium term, as well as the long term.”

It helps the club’s ambitions that, in Davison, Sunderland have someone who, in his previous job at giant, multi-national consultancy, Atkins, was the company’s director of sustainability.

“Yes, I know all about the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the UN’s Support for Climate Action Framework,” he smiles.

“I’ve got an understanding, more than you see at most football clubs, because of my background, so I know full well that we have set ourselves tough targets on this subject - targets that are both daunting and exciting.

“But we wanted to be ambitious, so let’s get on with it and do it.”

One thing Davison’s experience has taught him is that success in sustainability is gained through collaboration not competition.

And so the club will be going back to its grassroots in County Durham, Sunderland, and the wider North East to support a process it hopes can unite people in a way that reflects the wider sense of community that its SAFC Foundation has demonstrated for many years.

“Sunderland AFC has always brought people together locally and we want to do that even more in this case, to make an impact in supporting environmental change and energy usage,” said Steve.

“We spoke to key stakeholders at the very start, because it is pointless doing something like this independent of others. We are not going to achieve it just by ourselves.

“It’s about partnerships, it’s about us all collectively: councils, funders, organisations, fans, and community, coming together.

“We are looking at ways big and small to achieve our goals because there’s not one solution but dozens of different things which will contribute towards getting there.

“And we will need to work with our partners, with our fans, with local people whose expertise and products can support us becoming climate neutral and setting an example that fans can be proud of.”

The club’s vision is to use its net-zero target to bring a community together productively to achieve something worthwhile, with SAFC acting as the focus to involve and empower supporters and their communities.

The club does not claim to be making any ground-breaking innovations here, despite its enthusiastic approach.

Sunderland have been looking at the MetroCentre’s approach to car park canopy solar, for example, to inform what it will do at the Stadium of Light. The best practices at other clubs will be scrutinsed and copied, while Sunderland are happy to share their own successful ideas.

“We are not unique and we don’t think we have all the answers,” admits Steve.

“We are seeing some good things that some clubs are doing that we can copy, and we’ll share our ideas too - it’s about getting other sports clubs and businesses involved.”

Humble Forest Green Rovers were the first club to commit to net-zero and in 2020, Arsenal became the first Premier League club to do so, being followed with some gusto by Spurs and Liverpool - two clubs which are now leading the way on the transition.

It means a lot of ideas and schemes have already been trialled that Sunderland can adopt or adapt.

“I’ve got no problem with stealing ideas,” says Davison cheerfully. “Steal with pride, I say!”

The first stages of this commitment to change are happening now with the programme of LED replacement lighting underway.

Beyond that though, lie tens of smaller projects involving waste and water, food and cutlery, shopping locally and sustainably, as the club takes a holistic view of the whole process - anything which might help cut emissions will be looked at.

Davison reflects: “The ordinary man in the street might think that going green means two things: it’s more expensive, and it’s a lot of work for not much benefit.

“But nothing could be further from the truth though and we aim to prove that.

“This is the future and for us - it’s about showing a consistency of ambition for a 21st century club - and this summer we’ve got to position ourselves to explain our business model because communications on this will be important.

“On partnerships, we are looking for those who can help us be more sustainable - we need to partner with other parties, we need their expertise.

“In terms of the community, the fans, we have to influence people and make the most of this opportunity.

“I definitely believe in it.

“I don’t believe in stopping people from doing what they want to do but we can do better and we, as a club, want to do this as well as we can.

“Sometimes, on things like this, we see that grand statements fall away or that those best intentions don’t translate into real progress.

“We don’t want that.

“That’s why we set tough targets, to focus our minds more and this summer it will become much clearer how it all fits together, what we stand for.”

Famously, the Stadium of Light stands on the site of the former Monkwearmouth Colliery, once the biggest pit in Sunderland, smack bang in the middle of one of the biggest coalfields in the world.

Heritage still hangs heavily over the site - pride in a sense of place, often tinged with a sense of sadness, not so much for the loss of heavy industry but for the jobs, income, and stability they represented.

To grow up in County Durham and Sunderland in the decades of decline which made up the second half of the 20th century, was to think the town’s best years were likely behind it forever.

It turns out though, that the future is renewable - Steve Davison and Sunderland AFC plan to prove it.

Historically, Sunderland and its football club have been at their best when united in a common purpose.

And the task of achieving this new net-zero goal - a challenge, at once both simple and complex - calls out for that unity.

In doing so, this most modern of targets offers the prospect of renewing and strengthening the bonds of community and shared enterprise that always used to be at the very heart of traditional football.

Sunderland AFC’s road to sustainability: Ways and means to become a carbon-neutral, renewables-supported football club

Solar panels: One of the fastest growing sources of renewable energy - UK households are currently installing them at the fastest rate ever with more than 200,000 homes in line to get installed in 2023.

Panels are now one of the cheapest ways of generating long-term affordable energy and a solar canopy over car parking at the Stadium of Light will not only help power the ground but some of the businesses around the stadium.

A proposed solar farm near the Academy of Light would generate energy for the National Grid and contribute to Sunderland AFC’s low-carbon goals.

Air source heat pumps: Technology that the Government hopes will one day be commonplace in houses up and down the country to replace gas-powered boilers. Air sources act as fans in reverse - instead of cooling things down, they suck the energy out of the air to heat up homes.

Ground source heat pumps: Same principle as air source - taking the energy from outside to heat inside but instead of taking energy out of the air, they tap it from the ground.

Geothermal: One of the most exciting renewable energy sources - drilling into disused mines to extract heat from mine water. The technology is in its infancy and Sunderland Council is currently exploring a geothermal mine to extract heat from the former Monkwearmouth Colliery below the Stadium of Light.

What’s exciting is that the North East, along with much of the UK, sits on a network of former mine works in one of the biggest coalfields in the world. Get the extraction right and we could heat most of the UK from below ground, which is why the Government is currently investing in its development.

Other carbon-cutting initiatives include:

Waste and water: A scheme is to be introduced to collect rainwater at the Stadium of Light to aid sustainability as well as a long-term look at the waste produced at the club and ways of recycling or reducing it.

Food: A long-term commitment to sourcing food locally in order to cut down on transport and to look at the sustainability of food used.

Cutlery and cups: An end to single-use plastics and an in-depth look at the sustainability of all packaging and items used to serve fans, especially on matchday.

LED lighting: Putting LED replacements in the floodlights at Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground, which is used by SAFC Women and the club’s Under-21s. The gradual replacement of all lighting at SAFC facilities with LED lighting is expected to take several years.

Travel and transport: Match-day travel in particular is being looked at to find ways of cutting emissions involving staff, directors, and players without compromising team preparations.