GREEN COACH
The Royal Belgian Football Association: working towards environmentally friendly future in football
The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) joined GreenCoach as part of its interest to tackle climate change and work towards an environmentally friendly Federation.
Environment is a major concern for our future and the Royal Belgian Football Association is aware of that. The Belgian federation is divided in four interconnected entities : the RBFA (Royal Belgian Football Association) for the whole country and the national teams, the Pro League for Pro clubs, the VV (Voetbal Vlaanderen) for the Dutch speaking amateur part and the ACFF (Association des Clubs Francophones de Football) for the French and German speaking amateur part.
Social responsibilities are a key point for all those entities and many projects regarding diversity, anti-discrimination, inclusion, fair play, but also environmental issues and proper waste management are managed.
Here is a description of all those environmental projects led everywhere in our federation :
Within the organization :
The current location of the offices of RBFA is in Brussels, nearby the stadium where Belgium national team is playing. Currently, new offices are being built 30 kilometers south, next door Proximus Basecamp where Red Devils and Red Flames are training.
The building that will host the FA is fully thought to be ecofriendly. “In addition to the solar panels, several electric mobility solutions will be available, (…) and we have developed a general mobility plan that will facilitate traffic within the heart of Belgian soccer.” said Peter Bossaert, CEO of RBFA.
Also, practically, our sites are almost completely smoking-free, with only a few dedicated smoking area here in there. Water fountains have been installed at strategic points and every employee receive gourds and cups in order to reduce single-use plastic glasses and bottles.
At last, more and more electrical plugs appear on our parking lots, so that hybrid cars can be recharged during work.
Voetbal Vlaanderen:
The Flemish amateur part is taking part in the PlayGreen Project, an initiative led by UEFA. Unfortunately, the lockdown due to Covid19 made impossible the organization of a large green event.
ACFF :
The French-speaking amateur part is proud to be one of the five FA to participate to GreenCoach Project. In that matter, we want to create a simple tool that will help our amateur clubs to determine and tackle their environmental footprint. However, the ACFF is still looking to improve sustainability in its clubs.
In addition to the GreenCoach Project, ACFF is collaborating with BeWaPP, an association in charge of improving cleanliness in Wallonia. The result of this collaboration will be the “Club Plus Propre” Label (Cleaner Club Label).
This label is less comprehensive than GreenCoach and focuses on key points as a responsible waste management and cleanliness awareness. We want to make it easily feasible to all clubs concerned about current environmental issues. The 3 focus points are cleanliness, waste sorting and waste prevention.
It’s important to say that, at their own level, many clubs are already taking initiatives to reduce their impact on the environment. For example, plenty of them are already using water bottles instead of single use plastic bottles.
Step by step, the RBFA in its whole is trying to make football more and more ecofriendly. There is probably only one planet in the entire universe where we play football. Therefore, we do need to protect it!