Going Green

Southend United Community & Educational Trust is one of the very few Football Clubs that deliver an Environmental Awareness Project in local Primary Schools.

Going Green with The Blues With the backing and support of project sponsors Konica Minolta, Going Green has been designed with the idea to give children an understanding of how important green issues are and how we can all address them. Children will be encouraged to think about what they do with their waste products and how they can influence people around them. The children work through booklets and also work with DVD’s to help raise awareness.

The programme is four lessons long, three of which will last for an hour and take place in the classroom. The fourth lesson is held at Southend United Football Club’s stadium, which includes a ground tour and quiz with our latest software, Qwizdom.

The four lessons are broken down as follows:

Lesson One - Our Community and the Environment
Lesson Two - The 3R’s, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
Lesson Three - Energy and Conservation
Lesson Four - Visit to Roots Hall, SUFC

Going Green with The Blues

Environmental Policy

Our Planet, Our Future

As an established English Football League Club, Southend United Football Club (the Club) is fully aware of its responsibilities towards the immediate and surrounding Communities. The Club aims to promote healthy and active lifestyles whilst ensuring, all programmes and facilities that provided integrate environmental, economic and social perspectives into them.

The Club can assist in setting examples as to how Football League clubs can develop, review and improve environmental responsibilities on a regular basis.

As a Club we aim to:

increase the amount of waste recycled by increasing number of recycling bins
to reduce the amount of electricity used in the main stand (offices) of the stadium by regularly taking meter readings
to encourage and educate staff of their responsibilities of turning lights / computers off and recycling
to continue to deliver our successful Going Green with The Blues Project within Primary Schools

General Environmental Strategy

The Club is continuously looking to improve environmental performance. Various schemes and ideas have been introduced at Roots Hall over the course of the last 18 months. These continue to be reviewed, assessed and altered accordingly. We are always looking to improve upon our environmental strategies including introducing new ideas in the near future.

Staff

All employees have agreed to adhere to the obligations listed in the Staff Handbook which is readily available on the Club’s Intranet system ensuring that paper waste is kept to an absolute minimum. Staff also receive regular emails reminding them to reduce paper waste and not to print off emails unless essential.

All employees are encouraged to reduce the amount of energy used within not only the Club but homes also. This includes the switching off of lights not in use, the shut down of computers and televisions, the use of email for small messages rather than paper notes and also not to print off computer/email documents unless essential. Staff are also encouraged to use jugs of water rather than use bottles at meetings and in general.

The Club actively encourages all staff, including match day staff to use public transport and walk where possible helping to cut carbon emissions further.

Southend United footballers are also helping to lead by example where possible by introducing a car sharing pool. Drivers take it in turns to drive to training picking up fellow players on the way.

Education

The Club has a very productive and hard working Community Department titled Southend United Community & Educational Trust. The Trust engages with over 40,000 people a year all across Essex. The staff and Community Coaches encourage participants to keep healthy and active and one way of doing this is to encourage walking.

The Community & Educational Trust delivers a programme called “Going Green with The Blues” which achieved national recognition at The Annual Football League Trust Workshop Day. The programme enables Southend United Community coaches to visit 9-11 year olds in their school classroom over a period of four weeks. This programme helps children understand the importance of looking after the environment through a combination of recycling and saving energy initiatives.

Recycling

Roots Hall Stadium is in the process of introducing waste bins that will accommodate recyclable materials resulting in the reduction of general waste produced. These bins will be easily accessible helping both staff and customers alike come into contact with them.

The Club is also committed to reducing waste produced within the offices at Roots Hall and look to recycle all waste when possible. Each office has paper and cardboard waste bins meaning waste can be recycled on a regular basis.

Roots Hall

Roots Hall Stadium is over 50 years old and the infrastructure in place does not allow too many changes to be made in regards to environmental strategies. However, adaptations continue to be made and the Club is one of the leading football clubs in the country for trialling technology. Such schemes are not only user friendly but are also less detrimental towards the environment and have included internet booking systems, plastic season cards and the introduction of mobile phone ticketing which the Club has been at the forefront.

The Club United will continue to make it its duty to encourage improvements and recommendations where possible by welcoming customers and members of the public to Roots Hall to discuss environmental strategies.

New Stadium

The introduction of the new stadium to the community upon completion will take place within the next two years. This will be at the forefront of the Club’s community activities and will help promote what the Club aims to achieve.

The new stadium will have many modern features that will be included to coincide with the Club’s environmental policies. Such examples of this will be found within the design of the new stadium including plunge taps, flushless toilets, water harvesting and energy saving options such as motion sensors for lights.

The Club is also committed to reducing the amount of traffic that travels to the ground and surrounding areas on match days. Public transport will continue to run to and from the new stadium as well as a free bus shuttle service helping to keep carbon emissions to a minimum.

Noise pollution has also been taken into account and many trees will be planted to help reduce sound travel. These trees will also be vital in helping to offset carbon emissions.

Conclusion

The Club will continue to assess, review and improve upon its environmental performance and is always open to observations, both positive and negative regarding current and future environmental strategies.