Seville-based Real Betis Balompié has joined the UN’s Climate Neutral Now initiative. It is the first time a top-tier Spanish “La Liga” football club has committed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and compensate for the rest.
Real Betis is one of the top teams in La Liga, Spain’s professional football division – and it’s now among the top professional sports clubs with respect to its environmental and climate performance.
According to a Real Betis press release, the club has signed on to the UN’s Climate Neutral Now initiative, which means it will measure, reduce and compensate its emissions to become climate neutral. It has also committed to becoming a platform and facilitator for raising awareness about climate action among its millions of fans worldwide.
“Our plan is to develop a detailed inventory of our emissions and define more actions to be taken to reduce emissions. But we will not wait. We are already implementing easy to implement opportunities and we will become a channel for communicating the urgency and the opportunities for taking climate action, starting in-house with our players and staff,” said Ramón Alarcón, Business Director of Real Betis.
The community-based club has more than 14,000 owners, with the majority of voting rights belonging to individuals from the local community.
“Since the beginning, Real Betis Balompié has been about its family, its members and fans,” added club president Ángel Haro. “Taking action on climate is also about them, it’s about our family. We understand that climate change is a threat to the livelihoods and the well-being of everyone on the planet, and we are doing our part.”
The new sports facility being built by Real Betis will feature on-site renewable energy generation, advanced waste collection and treatment systems, trees and efficient energy applications. The club is also installing smart lighting systems in its stadium in Seville and taking measures to reduce single-use plastic.
Image credit: Lurk27 via Wikimedia Commons
