Environmental Action Emanating from Football Stadiums

It would not be so surprising if you were unaware that environmental awareness and action have been spreading rapidly in the J. League, the Japan Professional Football League. J. League has signed on to the concept of Japan's national "Team Minus 6 Percent" campaign, and has been actively promoting environmental consciousness through various activities, for example, unfurling a banner calling for global warming prevention on the football field before a game.

The Japan Professional Football League
http://www.j-league.or.jp/eng/

Meanwhile, football clubs affiliated to the J. League have also been carrying out various environmental conservation activities in cooperation with local residents, government entities and businesses in their respective home towns. The J. League promotes home town-based club management, and each club receives various types of support from its home base: For example, local businesses offer financial aid, local governments provide a stadium, and citizen volunteers help organize games. Thus, J. League clubs are similar to public organizations, and it is a natural extension for them to play a leading role in promoting environmental activities in their home towns.

Reducing Waste
One major campaign is reducing waste at stadiums. Football games normally generate a large amount of disposable containers such as paper cups, so clubs have been trying various ways to reduce throw-away container waste.

One of the football team in Division 2 of the J. League, Vegalta Sendai, installed an eco-station at its stadium to collect and separate waste in cooperation with a local non-governmental organization, the Miyagi Environmental Life Out-reach Network (MELON). Converting waste into recycling resources by separating out paper cups, disposable chopsticks, and plastic bottles has resulted in a reduction in the average number of garbage bags full of trash per 1,000 spectators from 25.5 in FY 2003 to 19.7 in FY 2005.

Vegalta also sells original reusable tumblers, and encourages spectators to bring their own drinking containers to games. Those who use their own tumblers can buy a serving of beer in the stadium concession stand at a 100-yen discount and soft drinks at a 20-yen discount. The tumbler is priced at 500 yen (about U.S.$ 4.31). Twelve thousand tumblers were sold out when first put on sale in FY 2003. As a result, though about 8,000 paper cups were previously discarded per game, this number has been cut in half. According to a survey in 2004, the average usage rate of tumblers for beer sales was 40 percent per game.

Another J. League club stopped using paper cups entirely and switched to reusable cups. Ventforet Kofu, belonging to J. League Division 1, introduced a deposit system for returnable cups to its home stadium, in cooperation with Space Fuu, a nonprofit organization that rents out reusable dishes. Customers pay an additional 100 yen (86 US cents) deposit per beverage, which is refunded when the cup is returned to the collection site. About 86,000 cups were used during the 2006 season alone. In addition to reusable cups, Ventforet also uses reusable dishes such as rice and soup bowls.

Promoting Public Transportation Use
Many people drive their own cars to football games; aside from traffic jams, this also causes problems of vehicle noise and exhaust fumes. To save energy and cope with global warming, it is important to encourage spectators to use public transportation that has less environmental impact.

Among J. League clubs, it can be said that Albirex Niigata in Division 1 is the team most beloved by its community. An average of over 40,000 Albirex supporters come to watch games at its home stadium, the Tohoku Denryoku Big Swan Stadium (formerly the Niigata Stadium), and so there is a terrific problem of excessive traffic on a game day.

One reason for this is that Big Swan Stadium is about four kilometers away from the nearest railway station, Niigata. Though shuttle buses are available between the station and the stadium, most supporters use private cars, which causes very heavy traffic around the stadium. To deal with this, a panel charged with improving the stadium traffic situation was set up in July 2005, with the main impetus coming from the local transport bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

According to a traffic survey conducted by the panel, on a game day only 8 percent of the 40,000 spectators used shuttle buses to reach the stadium, while 40 percent, or 15,000 spectators, drove their own cars. After the game, every car started for home at the same time. Due to this surge of traffic congestion, it took 35 to 40 minutes to get to Niigata Station from the stadium by shuttle bus, while it normally takes about only 12 minutes.

The panel decided to limit the use of private cars at the last two games in the 2005 season and at five games in the beginning of the 2006 season, enacting a large-scale experiment with the purpose of promoting public transportation use. The panel also took measures such as operating new shuttle buses, providing shared taxi service from nearby communities, and closing off all 600 parking spaces in the Niigata Prefectural Sports Park near the stadium. As a result, the number of shuttle bus users increased above the average level, and travel time to the station was reduced by about five minutes.

To ease the Niigata traffic jam situation, it will be essential to shift away from private car use toward public transport. This initially experimental measure has been continuously implemented on J. League official match days since July 2006. A local market street also lends supports by offering one free drink to shuttle bus users. Traffic in the area has started to show steady improvement.

Renewable Energy Use
Football stadiums consume a considerable amount of energy for bright lights and large video screens that deliver vivid images to fans. By meeting these energy needs with renewable sources, Kashima Antlers in Division 1 of the J. League works to make its games more environment-friendly.

A match between Kashima Antlers and Jubilo Iwata at the Antlers home stadium, the Ibaraki Prefectural Kashima Soccer Stadium, on December 2, 2006, was the first time a football game in Japan was powered solely by renewable energy. The stadium used 12,000 kWh of Green Power Certificates issued by the Green Energy Co. In addition to using Green Power during official matches, the stadium also used 4,000 kWh on its Fan Appreciation Day.

Recent Soccer Match First in Japan 100% Powered by Renewable Energy
http://www.japanfs.org/db/1799-e

JFS Office Now Wind-Powered! -- About the Green Power Certification System
http://www.japanfs.org/db/540-e

Kashima Antlers was designated as a manager of the Ibaraki Prefectural Kashima Soccer Stadium on April 1, 2006, and the team adopted a philosophy that aims to make the stadium a base for creating a new community. Promotion of environmental protection is one of its major goals, and the team adopted renewable energy use as one of its methods. In collaboration with Ibaraki University, Kashima Antlers also tries to boost ecological movements involving local people, such as zero waste and eco-driving.

These initiatives illustrate how environmental protection activities related to football games are steadily spreading in the home towns of J. League teams. The more J. League teams initiate environmental protection, the more local people feel proud of the teams and follow their lead to become environment-friendly team supporters. Tens of thousands of sports fans can potentially learn and practice environment-friendly behavior through their involvement with emotional, exciting sports events. This could be a driving force for helping achieve a more sustainable society.

(Written by Ichie Tsunoda)

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