FC Porto’s sustainability strategy and its main challenges

Teresa Santos – Quality and Environment Manager at FC Porto – presented the club’s sustainability approach and its practical implications during the ESSMA Summit.

Estádio do Dragão

Estádio do Dragão was built to be a five-star UEFA stadium, with a focus on sustainable operations. Several of those measures had been taken during the construction phase of the project. The ‘open to the city’ concept created two advantages. People can see the inside of the stadium from the outside, which attracts more visitors on non-matchdays. Secondly, the concept ensures that natural light and ventilation can easily enter the stadium. As a result, the club saves on optimising the quality of the pitch. Furthermore, in-house waste depots were installed close to the bars in order to reduce transport.

Energy consumption, water consumption and waste management

By developing a well thought-out sustainability policy, Estádio do Dragão became the first five-star UEFA stadium to be awarded a quality and environmental certification. FC Porto’s sustainability policy is built around three pillars: 

• Energy consumption
• Water consumption
• Waste management 

A sustainability approach requires a change in the mindset of the whole organisation, which is an enormous challenge. In a first phase they focus on the daily operations including security, cleaning and maintaining services to adopt and carry out FC Porto’s sustainability approach.

Sustainability campaigns

FC Porto implemented several initiatives towards its fans to get them involved in the club’s sustainability mindset. For example, bringing your own food and drinks into the stadium is not allowed and in the past fans had to throw it away. Nowadays, fans can dispose their food and drinks in dedicated boxes. All sealed products are then offered to institutions who help the less fortunate. Another initiative is the Zero Hunger Campaign. Together with the first team players, they were able to raise over 7,000 food products. Another campaign was launched after the enormous forest fires, which hit the region around Porto. Under the motto ‘Our flame will bring life back to the forest’, FC Porto promoted the reforestation through a Christmas message. Magnets with the logo of Estádio do Dragão were offered to the supporters and the club planted a tree for every magnet sold. Furthermore, in order to raise awareness of efficient water use among all FC Porto employees, an alert message appeared on their computer screen. 
 

 Main takeaways:

• Incorporate sustainability from the beginning of your stadium project and implement it in your daily operations
• Multidisciplinary team: make sure everyone within the club is involved
• Influence your fans: through good practices and adopting sustainable attitude, a club can influence its fans positively and together contribute to a better world together

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