What is the GREENFOOT project?

Project aims/goals

The success of the European Energy Union and the transition to a more efficient, low-carbon energy system can only be accomplished with active participation from a substantial portion of Europeans and financing for the many necessary improvement projects. The central goal of GREENFOOT is to support and foster this process by packaging individual participation and financing of the energy transition in the fun, friendly, and well-known context that is European professional sports, starting with the most popular sport: professional football.

How?

GREENFOOT will develop and implement a community-based financing scheme for renovating stadiums, practice facilities, and related buildings (e.g. team headquarters, fitness centres) with energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RES) measures. The GREENFOOT concept is to finance sport building EE renovations and RES installations with crowdfunding schemes that propel Europeans to become active participants in the energy transition through their love of sports and their favorite teams

GREENFOOT markets creative investment packages and associated financial contracts that entice sports fans and community members to invest in the energy transition, and allows for easy replication of the GREENFOOT concept through contract / marketing templates.

The GREENFOOT concept is applicable to sports-related buildings of all types and beyond, and will be demonstrated on three participating football buildings during the project runtime from major international football organisations (French Federation, Ireland Assoc. and Azerbaijan Assoc.). Massive signal boosting and post-project replication of EE and crowdfunding in sports buildings will be realized by the lighthouse pilot projects and a coordinated communication, dissemination and exploitation effort featuring links to UEFA, the EURO 2021 competition and the world champions of international football as an leading example.

GREENFOOT Packages

WP 1: Management

  • The project management will guarantee the targeted and efficient development of the project objectives and covers the overall administration and management of the project. Furthermore, the project management will ensure the quality of the work and findings by a peer-review based quality management system. WP 1 will produce a Data Management Plan (DMP), which will provide an effective framework to ensure comprehensive collection and handling of the data used in the project and to comply with the open access strategy of H2020, while also ensuring the protection of the involved partners’ data, information and privacy rights, thereby contributing to the Open Research Data Pilot, wherever possible. Additionally, WP 1 will lead the GREENFOOT consortium in choosing the demonstration buildings through a fair and transparent quorum.
  • Partners Involved:
    • Lead: Energieinstitut an Der Johannes Kepler Universitat Linz Verein (EI-JKU)
    • Partners: All

WP 2: Fostering participation in community-based finance schemes

  • The three objectives of WP2 are:
    • (1) Collect and synthesize the state-of-the-art knowledge of how to enhance participation in community-based financing schemes.
    • (2) Survey the populations relevant to the candidate buildings to better understand their preferences and the development of crowdfunding markets.
    • (3) Develop detailed, implementable plans for community-investment schemes for the candidate buildings.
  • Partners involved:
    • Lead: Energieinstitut an Der Johannes Kepler Universitat Linz Verein (EI-JKU);
    • Partners: Rina Consulting Spa (RINA-C); European Crowdfunding Network (ECN); Football Association Of Ireland (FAI); Azerbaycan Futbol Federasiyalari Assosiyalari Ictimai Birlik (AFFA); European Football For Development Network (EFDN); Electricite De France (EDF); Federation Francaise Football (FFF)

WP 3: Developing a crowdfunding module

  • The three objectives of WP3 are:
    • (1) Set up the banking infrastructure and contract templates for easy and secure investments.
    • (2) Offer the investment opportunity to fans and community members through various media.
    • (3) Submit reports on the outcomes, lessons learned, and challenges of these activities.
  • Partners involved:
    • Lead: Electricite De France (EDF)
    • Partners: Energieinstitut an Der Johannes Kepler Universitat Linz Verein (EI-JKU); European Crowdfunding Network (ECN); EURACTIV Media Network (EURACTIV); Football Association Of Ireland (FAI); Azerbaycan Futbol Federasiyalari Assosiyalari Ictimai Birlik (AFFA); Federation Francaise Football (FFF)

WP 4: Demonstrating community-based financing for football building renovations

  • The four main objectives of WP 4 are:
    • (1) Synthesize knowledge regarding best practices and important factors in sport building energy efficiency renovations and RES installations.
    • (2) Develop engineering plans for each candidate building containing specific renovations, and/or RES installations that would be relevant to each building and expected profits, challenges, and costs for each construction plan.
    • (3) Merge the knowledge from WPs 2 and 3 to create detailed renovation and investment plans for the demonstration buildings.
    • (4) Offer the investment and contract the planned renovations to demonstrate the GREENFOOT concept on at least three football buildings.
  • Partners involved:
    • Lead: Rina Consulting Spa (RINA-C)
    • Partners: Energieinstitut  an Der Johannes Kepler Universitat Linz Verein (EI-JKU); European Crowdfunding Network (ECN); Football Association Of Ireland (FAI); Azerbaycan Futbol Federasiyalari Assosiyalari Ictimai Birlik (AFFA); Federation Francaise Football (FFF);  European Football For Development Network (EFDN); Electricite De France (EDF)

WP 5: Multi-Stakeholder Communication, Exploitation and Knowledge Dissemination

  • The three main objectives of WP 5 are:
    • 1) Generate a GREENFOOT ‘buzz’ around energy efficiency and crowdfunding topics
    • 2) Hold training and workshop sessions for follower organizations and other stakeholders.
    • 3) Develop and disseminate the Greenprint Guidebook for replication of the GREENFOOT financing scheme in other sports buildings.
  • Partners involved:
    • Lead: EURACTIV Media Network (EURACTIV)
    • Partners: All

GREENFOOT Partners