LONDON, March 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Bury FC fans are currently the most environmentally friendly supporters in the country by taking the top spot in FA Cup sponsor E.ON's 'Carbon League' table. Supporters of the League Two club top the table after saving the most carbon emissions per fan than any other team this season.
The 'Carbon League' table forms part of E.ON's season-long carbonfootyprint.com campaign - an initiative designed to reduce the environmental impact of The FA Cup. Since the First Round of the Cup in November 2007, football fans across the country have been pledging to make simple energy saving measures to offset the 45,000 tonnes of CO2 produced by the competition. So far over 50,000 pledges have been made by football fans.
Currently, Bury's fans are top of the league with 41kg of CO2 saved per supporter so far this season. In total, the club has saved almost 100 tonnes of CO2, saving the equivalent amount of energy required to power 25 households for a whole year(1).
League One team Huddersfield Town are in second place with 14kg saved and Barnet fans are currently third (9kg). Middlesbrough, Liverpool and Portsmouth are the most environmentally conscious Premier League fans. Despite being the lowest ranked team left in The FA Cup, fans of Bristol Rovers feature in the top ten, ahead of Premiership big guns, Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea.
The 'Carbon League' table divides the total COsquared saved by fans of each club by their team's average home attendance. So although fans of the Premiership clubs have made more pledges, it's Bury fans who have made more savings per fan.
The Carbon League Top 20
Club Total 2007 - 2008 Season CO2 (KG) Carbon Average Attendance Saving Per Dioxide Fan Saved (KG CO2) Bury 98,302 2,387 41.20 Huddersfield Town 131,933 9,360 14.10 Barnet 20,557 2,067 9.95 Millwall 68,693 8,046 8.54 Middlesbrough 215,623 26,422 8.16 Liverpool 345,293 43,650 7.91 Bristol Rovers 58,620 7,659 7.65 Hereford United FC 23,604 3,108 7.59 Portsmouth 125,930 19,943 6.31 Preston North End 76,648 12,320 6.22 Arsenal 325,565 60,054 5.42 Manchester United 407,659 75,580 5.39 Peterborough United 28,491 5,332 5.34 Barnsley 54,598 10,629 5.14 West Bromwich Albion 106,643 21,173 5.03 Notts County 20,749 4,454 4.68 Nottingham Forest 86,147 19,519 4.41 Chelsea 178,119 41,648 4.28 Tottenham Hotspur 146,901 35,859 4.10
Regardless of whether clubs are still in the competition or not, fans can still do their bit to push their team up the league table by logging on to carbonfootyprint.com and selecting a number of simple pledges to undertake. One tonne of carbon dioxide will be saved over a season if:
- Ten fans travel to FA Cup matches by bus instead of the car.
- Seven fans each offer someone else a lift or car share to the ground.
- 11 fans don't overfill the kettle to make their half time cuppa.
- 21 fans each install one energy efficient light bulb at home.
- 1,000 fans watch just four FA Cup matches on a friends TV or at the pub and turn their TV off at home.
Simon Breakell, Sponsorship Promotions Manager at E.ON said:
"It's great to see Bury, Huddersfield and Barnet topping our carbonfootyprint.com league. It shows that the fans from clubs in every division can get involved with the campaign and use their support to push their club up the table. We're asking fans to make small energy saving pledges, but when multiplied by the thousands of fans taking part nationwide, they make a real difference to reduce the carbon footprint of The FA Cup. By simply sharing a car to a match or switching off their televisions and watching the match down the pub together, fans can help make the beautiful game greener".
Carbonfootyprint.com is football's first nationwide environmental initiative designed to raise awareness of climate change and follows the success of 'Save Your Energy for the Blues' - an award winning initiative run by E.ON in conjunction with Ipswich Town Football Club last season, which saw fans make over 14,000 carbon saving pledges to make the Blues the country's first ever carbon neutral football club.
Notes to Editors
(1) All carbon dioxide figures provided by CRed - the Carbon Reduction Programme.
- CRed have estimated that The FA Cup season 2007/08 will generate 45,054 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
- This season's carbon dioxide output is calculated and assessed by CRed on a Round-by-Round basis to ensure an accurate measurement.
- The estimated CO2 produced by The FA Cup could be enough to fill Wembley stadium approximately 21 times.
CRed will work with E.ON on the Carbonfootyprint.com campaign to calculate carbon dioxide emissions for every round of The FA Cup sponsored by E.ON, so that fans pledges can be evaluated in the context of the carbon dioxide produced by the 2007/8 FA Cup campaign. A flexible approach is to be utilised, allowing individual match characteristics to be included. Calculations will take into account both operational impact of all participating clubs and fans' travel carbon dioxide emissions.
About E.ON:
- E.ON is one of the leading energy suppliers, providing gas and electric to millions of Britain's homes. In addition to sponsoring The FA Cup, E.ON is also Sponsor of The FA Women's Cup, The FA Youth Cup and is The FA Schools Partner till 2010.
- E.ON is one of the leading green generators in the UK, with 21 wind farms located from Cornwall to Northern Ireland. We also burn biomass material mixed with coal in two of our power stations and have recently finished building the UK's largest dedicated biomass power station at Lockerbie.
- Combined, our renewable portfolio generates enough green energy to power the homes in a city the size of Manchester.
- E.ON plan to spend GBP1bn on new renewables in the next five years, including new onshore and offshore wind, new biomass and wave and tidal power.
About CRed:
- CRed was founded in 2003 by the internationally renowned School of Environmental Sciences (ENV) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) to seeking sustainable solutions to climate change. CRed's target is to help society - organisations, communities and individuals - reduce its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 60% by 2025, around 25 years ahead of the UK Government's aspiration.
For further information please contact: Sarah Kendall - Arena International, Tel: +44(0)20-7079-5920, Mob: +44(0)7793-124-810, Email: sarah.kendall@arenainternational.co.uk; Simon Breakell - E.ON UK, Tel: +44(0)7702-668-400, Email: simon.breakell@eon-uk.com
Comments