SOUTHAMPTON FC – THE HALO EFFECT

The Halo Effect

The Halo Effect is the name of the sustainability strategy for Southampton FC, launched in January 2021. An initiative with a dual meaning, first inspired by the football club’s crest & heritage, alongside the combined positive impact that the initiatives will have on people and the community.

We have four key pillars to our sustainability strategy (see appendix for more details):

• Environmental Responsibility
• Corporate Responsibility
• Social Responsibility
• Fan Responsibility

Our lead target for our ‘Environmental Responsibility’ pillar is for the club to become carbon neutral by 2030. One of our Halo Initiatives is the ‘Home Grown Scheme’, combining our commitment to protecting our planet (through carbon offsetting) with our commitment to developing young footballers through our academy.

For every academy graduate who makes their First Team debut, the club will plant 250 trees. Based on an average of 3 academy First Team debuts each season, over the next 4 years we anticipate planting 3,000 trees, which in turn will offset 3,000 tonnes of our carbon emissions.

In the 2020/21 season alone we’ve had 5 academy graduates make their First-Team debuts, resulting in 1,250 trees being planted in Southampton, with a further 1,250 trees being preserved in the Amazon Rain Forest as part of our partnership with Carbon Footprint and their ‘tree buddy’ system.

Following the work undertaken and the launch of The Halo Effect, Southampton FC recently climbed the Sport Positive Premier League Sustainability rankings to 6th place, up from 18th last season.

The range of activity we’ve undertaken since launching our strategy for Sustainability includes:

• Offset 1250 co2e through a tree planting and tree preservation scheme working with Carbon Footprint Ltd
• Our Saints Voice and Fans Forum events give us an insight into how our fans feel about Sustainability and offers us a great opportunity to talk face to face about what we are doing as a club and answer any questions
• Became a founding signatory of Southampton City Councils ‘Green City Charter’ pledging to support the city’s efforts to become Carbon Neutral by 2030
• Signed our commitment to the UN Sports for Climate Action Declaration on 17/12/2020
• Collaboration with local charity ‘Final Straw Solent’ to carry out staff beach cleans in the local waterside areas in Southampton
• SFC donation made towards the production of cotton, sustainable, reusable ‘We love Marchwood’ carrier bag scheme
• Sustainability and environmental awareness lessons to be incorporated within the Life Skills element of the Academy Education Curriculum for our Scholars, with guest presentations from IEMA, Southampton University, and the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust
• Biodiversity at the Training Ground information shared in our newsletters for the Academy players and their families
• We have become members of BASIS (British Association of Sustainable Sport)

As a club with a very wide-reaching platform, we have been very clear about our vision, our journey and have asked our fans and staff to join us moving forward as we continue to reduce our environmental impact.