Improving the sustainability of sports: online the website of the FREE KICKS project, developed with the coordination of the SuM Laboratory of the Sant'Anna School. Toward innovative environmental practices among national football federations
The website dedicated to the FREE KICKS (Football Relies on EMAS and Ecolabel to Keep Innovating on Circularity as a Key for Sustainability) project, co-funded by the European Union through the Erasmus Sport program and launched in February 2023 with a duration of 30 months, is now online, and aims to initiate the soccer world's transition to the goals of the Green Deal and the New Circular Economy Action Plan, collectively and individually, by supporting the adoption of cutting-edge environmental management practices and sustainable organizational models among national football federations and professional clubs.
FREE KICKS is coordinated by the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies and, in particular, the Sport and Sustainability research group of the Institute of Management's Sustainability Management (SuM) laboratory. Football clubs FC Porto, Malmö FF, Racing Club from Argentina, Fundación Real Betis Balompie and the Romanian Football Federation are the project partners, together with Sport Positive, which is in charge of the communication and dissemination of the results, and ECA (European Club Association).
During the development of the project, three participating soccer organizations will work towards obtaining EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) registration, and three others will calculate their environmental footprint through the European Commission's PEF or OEF methodological standards using the Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) method. This is a groundbreaking goal as no organization in the soccer world has yet pursued the adoption of these tools.
