Real Betis celebrates the third year of Forever Green, the green and white club's environmental sustainability platform. Three years working to fight climate change, an effort that has turned Real Betis into one of the leading football clubs in this matter and which recognizes Real Betis as the second most sustainable European football club and the first in LaLiga, according to Brand Finance.
Since the birth of Forever Green, more than 117 actions have been developed. Among them are cleaning of natural spaces, the installation of a fleet of scooters and electric bicycles for the Club's employees, in addition to promoting their use by fans through discounts and recycling and awareness campaigns, among others other actions. Real Betis also continues to work on the Club's own facilities to reduce its impact on the environment as much as possible.
Throughout these four years of study, control and measurement of the carbon footprint, the Club has managed to reduce its emissions by nearly 31% compared to the 2018/2019 base season, assuming almost 1,000 tCO2e less, which are the same emissions that are produced to treat and purify 2,597Hm3 of water.
Furthermore, recently the Club has wanted to go further and have become a carbon neutral team by offsetting a renewable electricity generation project through the construction and operation of a 90 MW wind farm called Piedra Larga Wind Farm. located in Mexico.
Among the milestones achieved during this season, the construction of the new Rafael Gordillo Sports City and the upcoming remodeling of the Benito Villamarín Stadium stand out. Both infrastructures will have facilities designed in accordance with the most sustainable criteria and techniques from an environmental perspective. Among them, the water recycling system stands out through an irrigation system, as well as the use of cork instead of rubber, one of the largest emitters of microplastics.
Another moment in the history of Forever Green that took place during the last year was the celebration of the second match for the sustainability of LaLiga, which took place at Real Betis - Espanyol last April and which also extended to the sports sections of the Club. The actions carried out around these matches prevented the emission of almost 11 tons of CO2e impact into the atmosphere compared to a normal match.
With all these facts on the table, Forever Green has turned Real Betis into one of the most sustainable clubs on the planet and, therefore, has received several recognitions worldwide, precisely it received an award for the action of its goal's nets made with fishing nets, a project carried out together with Finetwork. In addition, also for the work carried out in environmental matters, the Club has received awards such as the 'GBS-Winner Best ENVIRONMENTAL Performance' and has been recognized by the OBS Business School.
In addition, institutions as important as LaLiga - the entity with which Forever Green was presented -, ACB, the F League, the National Futsal League, the Endesa Super Cup, the Copa del Rey final, World Football Summit, the Championship of Spain of Pádel, the team of the first division of the Mexican LaLiga de Baloncesto, Abejas de León, the Government of Spain, the Junta de Andalucía, The Climate Plegde or Climate Neutral Now have also joined the Real Betis environmental project.
Taking advantage of its UEFA classification, Real Betis has created environmental alliances with teams such as Roma, Lugodorets, Aris Limassol, Sparta Prague and Zenit to launch sustainable initiatives and awareness campaigns. In addition, the green and white club is part of European projects that work in the fight against climate change.
As a result of these three years of work, Forever Green has become known worldwide, reaching 670 million people and reaching 87 countries, according to data provided by Blinkfire and Kantar. Real Betis' environmental program has had visibility in 230 media platforms.
One of the objectives of Forever Green is to be a speaker for all those organizations and entities that have joined the fight against climate change with concrete actions to inspire society to join this mission. Thus, the sustainability platform already has more than 83 participating companies and organizations. In addition, 20 companies have joined as partners of Forever Green's action areas such as Asisa, Arus, Asterius, Bosquia, Bureau Veritas, Caixabank, Davis Cup, Ecoadvance, Ecoterrae, Ecogranja La Pradera, Ecolec, Endesa, Ecovidrio, Empaquetados y Recuperaciones, English Connection, Eternal Energy, Endesa, Fundación Cajasol, Finetwork, Fundación ECOLEC, Graphstone, Gravity Wave, Herbalife Nutrition, Medac, Moovit, La España Azul, Lime, Patatas Arrebola, Play Station (Sony), Reale, Social Energy , Scoobic Templo Cafés, ONCE, Volvo, World Football Summit and Wuolah.
Forever Green wants to continue growing by adding entities and initiatives in order to expand the movement and increasingly multiply its impact in the fight against the climate emergency.
Three years of learning and work. An innovative sustainability platform that has positioned Real Betis Balompié as one of the clubs in Europe and the world most committed to the environment, showing that it is green not only in the colors of its shield, but in all the values of the entity.