Wolves not 'stopping there' on sustainability ambitions

BBC News

22-04-2025

Wolves may have already made positive progress in their sustainability ambitions but they know there are still a "huge number of opportunities" to take it further.The impact of climate change is being felt in many different ways and football is not immune to these.Previous research, external has suggested one in four professional football pitches will be at risk from flooding in 25 years.While so much of the focus is what is happening on the pitch, there is an increasing expectation from supporters that clubs should be doing more to reduce their impact off it.In the second part of our Earth Day chat with Thom Rawson, Wolves' sustainability lead highlighted how important this relationship with fans has been to their One Pack, One Planet sustainability programme."A key part of [developing the strategy] was a fan survey to confirm this is something that fans wanted," Rawson said."The results of that survey told us that around 70-80% of fans agreed it was important for the club to be pursuing and agreed they had an expectation that the club should be acting on sustainability."A similar number also said they supported the idea of having to make changes themselves in support of the club's sustainability ambition."As part of the plan to engage supporters in the One Pack, One Planet work, Wolves have set up a fan focus group for environmental sustainability, similar to those that already existed in areas like ticketing and matchday experience."It [the focus group] gives fans who are interested and proactive on this subject an opportunity to directly shape the direction of travel for the club," Rawson added."It also gives them the chance to engage directly with those who are leading it in different areas of the club."On 9 April, Wolves announced they would be offering supporters a free cycle ride to the club's final four Molineux fixtures - the latest initiative with Transport for West Midlands.It is this kind of work that has been highlighted in their latest sustainability report, external, which Rawson believes shows "the real impact that the sustainability programme is delivering."Annual sustainability reports are a really good opportunity for us to reflect on the success of the programme and how much has been happening over the previous year."However, clearly that doesn't mean that we are stopping there. We know that there are a huge number of opportunities to continue to pursue."