Grassroots Club Hitting Premier League Standards

As the world looks to the professional football game to step up their net zero ambitions, one amateur football club in Leicester is flying under the radar.

Leicester Nirvana FC (Nirvana) are the first club in the UK to form a partnership with the United Nations and their local university, with an aim to become net zero. The partnership between De Montfort University, Leicester Nirvana and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Academic Impact Hub, is the first of its kind and has developed partner interest from Germany, Spain and countries across Africa.

In a recent statement by the Premier League, clubs agreed to a Premier League Environmental Sustainability Commitment, which introduces a minimum standard of action on environmental issues across the clubs and the League.

The Commitment outlines four operational measures, which will build on existing action made by clubs to reduce their environmental impact and provide a foundation to underpin long-term environmental ambitions and see each club:

  1. Develop a robust environmental sustainability policy, by the end of the 2024/25 season

  2. Designate a senior employee to lead the club’s environmental sustainability activities

  3. Develop a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions dataset (scope 1, 2 and 3) by the end of the 2025/26 season and work towards a standardised football-wide approach to measuring emissions

  4. Support the development of a common framework for action via the Premier League Sustainability Working Group (PLSWG)

At a grassroots level Nirvana are already working towards the standards set by the Premier League and have developed a new club Net Zero Policy, followed by a Club Strategy to support the cultural shift in sustainability that Nirvana plans to make. Club Trustee and senior volunteer, Ivan Liburd was appointed the role of SDG Champion and has said,

“Football has the potential to do so much to support the agenda of sustainability, not only at a professional level, but also at a community level. We just need more resources to do it. We have adopted the model of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as an overarching framework. As a club, we are committed on our journey to net zero and have had many discussions around how governing bodies and brands can support grassroots clubs to become more sustainable, and we will continue to look at news ways bridge the gap of sustainability and inner city community football.”

Nirvana were recently supported by Dr. Leticia Ozawa-Meida, a senior research fellow at De Montfort University to assess emissions across all facets of the club's operations, ranging from the energy usage in their clubhouse to the transportation habits of players and their families. This rigorous study is a vital component of the clubs Net Zero Football Project, and has generated findings that can serve as a model for similar assessments in other amateur sports clubs across the country and the world.

Dr Ozawa-Meida, a Senior Research Fellow at De Montfort University, said:

“The results of the carbon footprint show that the largest sources of emissions of Leicester Nirvana relate to energy use, gas and electricity (70%), followed by the emissions related to travel of players and families to the matches (27%), and in less extent to emissions due to water use, waste generated and procurement of players uniforms (3%).”

Representatives from nirvana also had the opportunity to visit to Germany and connect with FC Internationale Berlin 1980 e. v. and SG.Eintracht.Peitz, to discuss collaboratively working on a framework for grassroots football clubs across the continent and indeed the world to benefit from.

Nirvana were also early adopters of the Football for the Goals initiative, that provides a platform for the global football community to engage with and advocate for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Leicester Nirvana FC