The Danish FA and Danish Handball are investigating “Green Fan Commitment”
As the two largest sports federations in Denmark, the Danish Football Association (DBU) and Danish Handball (DH) have joined forces on a pilot project called Green Fan Commitment – a part of the FA’s ACCESS Action Plan.
The project was created because both federations have a large and supportive fan base and the last years been working to ensure the sport become more sustainable and take greater social responsibility. Here, the fan supporters at national matches for both federations are seen as having the largest total CO2 emissions. This is partly because many sports fans gather for these mega-events, which have a large emission footprint, including transport, food and beverage consumption, and waste.
Although both DBU and Danish Handball have previously undertaken several sustainability initiatives, it is still seen that there is not enough information about what fans expect from us as a sports organization. Therefore, DBU has decided, together with Danish Handball, to achieve a better understanding of our fans’ commitment to sustainability agenda. The pilot project has been initiated by the two sports organizations in the context of DIF, the Danish Sports Federation, the umbrella organization for all sports organizations in Denmark.
To achieve new insights, DBU, Danish Handball and the interview company “Is It a Bird” have conducted a series of qualitative interviews with fans from both federations. First, a series of pre-interviews were conducted with Danish football fans before the match against Spain. Then, a series of on-the-spot interviews were conducted during the match at the Danish national stadium. After the match, a group of those who participated in the pre-interviews were gathered for a focus group interview. The same has been repeated during the World Handball Championships, which are taking place in Herning, to gain insights from Danish handball fans.
The final milestone for this pilot project is to process the data and thus arrive at the result of the survey which will be made available in May 2025. These results will help initiate a series of sustainability measures now that we understand our fans’ needs and their expectations of us as a sports organization. The preliminary data shows that fans from both sports expects that the federations take active steps towards the green transition.