Football's carbon footprint

While carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas emitted through human activities, have you ever thought of the carbon footprint that the whole football industry is generating?

According to carbontust's article in 2013, The total carbon footprint generated in a single Community Shield match is 5,160 tonnes.  How much is 5,000 tonnes carbon footprint.  An average U.S. household carbon footprint is about 50 tons per year, that would be the emission of 100 households in one year emitted in one game.

Carbon footprint for a match at Old Trafford in 2013

And it is only for one game per stadium.  Bear in mind that there are thousands of football matches happening each week (at a lower amount of carbon footprint for sure).  Watching the game on TV would surely help us to protect our Earth, to a certain extent.   Thanks to advances in technology, fans can enjoy football games on their tablet and smartphones.  Emission for this can be eight times lower than watching on TV however, mobile data transmission is very energy intensive.  Watching the whole game have the same emission as driving ten miles.

World cup for sure is the biggest event in football, and it also generates the most carbon footprint, mainly due to the long-haul flights from around the world.  Efforts in reducing carbon emission in transportation had been put such as introducing eco-taxi, eco-ferry and creation of bike and pedestrian path.  However, the 2010 World Cup in South Africa is thought to have generated 2.75m tonnes of carbon footprint, which is double of Beijing Olympics and nine times greater than 2006 World Cup in Germany.  Sources other than transportation are mainly energy consumption in supporting facilities. (Environment Leader)

Some countries are involved in the idea of 'football offsetting' for the carbon emission generated from the flights of fans going for the World Cup, including nations such as Uruguay, Korea and Serbia, which would cost only about £25 per flight.

Therefore, think twice before you buy the ticket and go for an away match.