The Danish football supporters to discover new (more) circular practices thanks to the new Action Plan published by the Danish FA
As a part of the Danish FA’s commitment and involvement in the ACCESS project, their Action Plan putting forward and describing three key Pilot Actions has seen the daylight, ready for testing n implementation.
After having mobilised a diverse yet significant number of local and regional stakeholders – including public and private ones, as well as those from the world of sports, and having identified the strengths, skills and capacities of those stakeholders, the Football Association of Denmark (DBU) has put together a comprehensive Action Plan which outs all those assets in use and which would allow DBU to substantially improve their environmental performances.
Namely, DBU wants to challenge certain processes and operations which occur around organising events and matchdays which would considerably affect certain habits and behaviour of tens of thousands of match goers. Probably the most evident will be rethinking the use of plastic in the official fan zones prior to matches which host those tens of thousands of match goers. Thanks to a 40-year-long partnership between Carlsberg and DBU, reinforced by ThinkHouse – a behaviour design consultancy, joint efforts and resources will be put in redesigning the reusable cups and beverage containers system which is currently giving poor and results below any expectation. DBU and Carlsberg are now looking at a system and necessary material which would be owned by DBU and which would allow collection washing and storing of those cups and other containers. The overall objective is to increase the level of return of reusable cups and beer mugs in the fan zone and thus reach an expected return of 90% of above by improving the deployment of the reusable cups and containers scheme and using behavioural design in increasing the participation of the target group.
Another joint effort will see the Danish Sport Federation and the Municipality of Brøndby teaming up with DBU, supported by Behave Green – a consultancy specialised in transportation data collection and analysis and scenario modelling. It would also directly influence the behaviour change of not only supporters but also local residents – consciously or unconsciously, as the current state of active transportation is at a rather low level and the municipality of Brøndby wants to see a shift towards a larger share of active transportation users. This particular pilot action supports the Climate Plan for Brøndby – the path towards a CO2-neutral and climate-adapted community” as well as the Danish Sport Federation’s Political Program 2021-2024 strategic landmark 3 “Sports take responsibility.”
Finally, one last pilot action will be a rather overarching one. Many sport organisations are currently working on different sustainability initiatives. However, we still lack knowledge of what our fans expect from us as a sport organisation. Therefore, DBU has decided together with DanskHåndbold (Danish Handball), to achieve a better understanding of our fans’ commitment to the green and sustainability agenda. The pilot action was initiated by the two sports organisations, members of the Danish Sports Federation. Such a pilot action is expected to achieve a multitude of results such as targeted initiatives based on fan insights, making it easier for DBU to develop better and targeted initiatives towards our fans in the future, as well as a better understanding of our fans’ commitment to the green agenda what would give the sport organisations a legitimisation and arguments (political and administratively) when prioritising the green agenda and special initiatives. Many other direct and indirect benefits are expected, but generally, the biggest added value would certainly be an establishment of co-responsibility and co-ownership, as such an initiative could help us mobilising supporters to take responsibility for the green transition at sports events and feel the ownership of those initiatives.
In order to achieve a successful implementation of this Action Plan, including reaching out to relevant target groups and their engagement, a comprehensive communication plan will accompany the Action Plan, which would also reflect this joint venture between DBU and their valuable and inevitable stakeholders.