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Munich’s Allianz Arena: a paragon of climate neutrality?

28
May

By: ian

Comments: 0

Munich’s Allianz Arena: a paragon of climate neutrality?

By: Nikolaus J. Kurmayer | EURACTIV.de

This article is part of EURACTIV’s special report Euro 2021 football cup: The green issue.

The Euro 2020 football cup’s carbon footprint has come under green scrutiny because of the logistics required to move the teams around between the eleven organising countries. Is the Munich stadium part of the problem or part of the solution?

The Allianz Arena in Munich will host at least four games of the Euro 2020. As climate protection issues become ever more important to Europeans, fans are wondering whether football is doing its share in fighting climate change.

The German initiative Zukunft Profifußball (the future of professional football) has made headlines by demanding that football clubs own up to their ecological responsibilities.

German football events have a history of laying claim to sustainability, starting with the 2006 world championships, which organisers considered climate neutral thanks to its ‘Green Goal’ initiative.

“With the 2006 World Cup we have shown that major events can also be organised in an environmentally sound way,” said then German environment minister Sigmar Gabriel.

The flagship measure implemented back then was a 100,000-tonne carbon offset scheme to compensate the event’s emissions with carbon reduction projects like tree-planting initiatives. Organisers also committed to cut waste generation and water use by 20%.

But those initiatives were largely dismissed by environmental groups. “Offsetting projects simply don’t deliver what we need – a reduction in the carbon emissions entering the atmosphere,” said Alia al Ghussain of Greenpeace UK.

Greenpeace probably have a point. Football events have tended to be rather generous in estimating their own climate impacts. At the 2006 world cup in Germany, the Oko-institute estimated the added carbon emissions due to spectator and team travel at around 100,000 tonnes of CO2 for the entire event.

For the 2016 UEFA Euro cup hosted in France, UEFA estimated the CO2 emissions due to spectator and team travel at around 517,000 tonnes.

It is unclear whether spectator and team mobility emissions increased five-fold in the 10-year period between the 2006 world cup in Germany and the 2016 Euro cup in France. But the discrepancy in CO2 emissions between the two events certainly shows that estimates can vary widely.

‘Climate-neutral Allianz Arena 2030’

Following the 2006 world cup, the Allianz Arena and its resident team, Bayern Munich, are now again coming under the spotlight.

Judging by official declarations, ecological sustainability has become a major consideration for FC Bayern. “FC Bayern has a vision: the climate-neutral Allianz Arena 2030,” said Andreas Jung, head of marketing at FC Bayern München AG and shareholder representative of the Allianz Arena.

“We have been dealing with environmental issues since 2002 already,” said Jürgen Muth, executive officer of Allianz Arena, adding that the stadium has a long history of working towards climate neutrality.

FC Bayern began implementing an Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) in 2006, in a bid to reduce the stadium’s carbon footprint and cut down costs. EMAS is open to anyone fulfilling the requirements and serves as a management and controlling tool.

According to the public records required by the EMAS scheme, the arena’s renewable energy use jumped from 26% in 2017-18 to 69% in 2018-19. In 2019, FC Bayern won the European Reusable Award granted by the environmental NGO Environmental Action Germany (DUH) due to its introduction of reusable plastic cups.

“By using reusable cups, FC Bayern München is therefore leading the way, demonstrating that in football stadiums, environmental protection and entertainment can go hand in hand,” said DUH deputy executive director Barbara Metz.

The arena also supplements its energy use with solar panels totaling 750 kW peak capacity and constantly seeks to optimise its energy use for heating and cooling.

Room for improvement

There is still plenty of room for improvement though, starting with water use. In 2018-2019, the arena used upwards of 60 million litres of water. With 2.26 million visitors that year, this means more than 2,600 litres of water was used for each visitor.

Energy consumption is another area where further gains can be made. The arena seats a whole 70,000 people during international games and can boast almost 8,000 square meters of culinary space, all of which requires vast amounts of energy for heating and cooling.

And then of course, there is transport. For every game that is hosted at the arena in normal times, more than 30,000 spectators arrive by car or bus, travelling upwards of 270km on average. The arena alone offers upwards of 11,000 parking spots for cars and buses in massive parking complexes.

On average, just under 50% of spectators reach the stadium by public transport, meaning further gains there are possible.

Germany’s Euro 2024 will be ‘most sustainable in history’

Looking forward, UEFA has signed up to the EU’s 2050 climate neutrality goal. And with the Euro 2024 taking place in Germany, the Allianz Arena will once again aim to make climate neutrality a core part of its ambitions.

“As co-organisers of the 2024 UEFA European Championships, we want to make the tournament the most sustainable and climate friendly in Euro history,” said Phillip Lahm, managing director of Euro 2024 GmbH.

[Edited by Frédéric Simon]

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EURACTIV, with the support of GreenFoot, released this special report in order to cover the topic in its entirety and help you understand better the European #energy decarbonisation.

👉 Read the full report via the link in bio. 

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    Considering that sports buildings account for arou Considering that sports buildings account for around 10% of the total energy demand in some countries, it is definitely worth talking about reducing the carbon footprint of these structures, writes Benjamin Kirchler, research associate at the Enerfieinstitut der Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, the coordinating partner of the GREENFOOT project.

To understand the potential of crowdfunding for #football organizations to leverage their large fan base to fund building renovations, GREENFOOT conducted an extensive primary data collection among ~3,500 citizens in #Azerbaijan, #France, #Ireland and #Sweden.

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    In recent years, we have seen several stadiums imp In recent years, we have seen several stadiums implement specific guidelines to make their stadiums more and more sustainable. 

The Groupama Arena promotes sustainability in the district of Budapest following four directives in their green pathway. According to their strategy, they work according to these four pillars: 

PIONEER: We are committed to building Hungary’s first carbon-neutral stadium in the name of renewal. With this we want to set an example and inspire.

LOCAL INTEGRATION : On the road to complete carbon neutrality, we implement not only large-scale but also small-scale projects that are very important for the protection of the environment, giving our suppliers and partners the opportunity to actively participate and create value.

INNOVATIVE: We try to apply the latest technological solutions to all elements of the Green Arena program, we are constantly increasing our knowledge and following the relevant trends.

VALUE CREATOR: We strive to create value together with our suppliers and partners and share it with others. Not only do we want to set an example, but we also want to encourage individuals and communities alike. In order to strengthen the guidelines, we have launched our Green Aréna program, which aims to be the greenest club in the OTP Bank League.“

Besides this, they created the “Zöld Aréna Programját”, Green Arena Programme which is an engagement in the sustainability operation of the stadium. Within this programme, the stadium has day-to-day operation in order to reduce the ecological footprint of his facility. 

By @efdnfoundation 

Read the entire article here: https://eurac.tv/9Vc2
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    This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 893858. The sole responsibility for the content of this website lies with the GREENFOOT project. It does not necessarily represent the opinion of the European Union.

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