Posted on 11th September 2025
This is the first in a series of monthly articles from our partners at Pledgeball as they look at some of the ways football is delivering climate education and behavioural change…
Arsenal have partnered with Football for Future to deliver climate education at academy level, including workshops demonstrating how football contributes to carbon emissions and how stadium operations – like waste reduction and renewable energy – can reduce impact.
From touring the Emirates Stadium’s renewable energy installations to seeing how single-use plastics are managed, players gain observational context rather than canned slogans. As the club says, these sessions help develop better people, not just better footballers.
Chris Thurston, the player care manager at the Gunners’ Hale End academy, emphasised that in these academy workshops, young players truly connected climate change to football.
“It has been a great opportunity for the academy players to learn more about some of the great work that Arsenal already does at the Emirates Stadium including methods to reduce waste and using renewable energy sources amongst others,” he said.
“This commitment to action and education is integral to how Arsenal acts to reduce our environmental impact.”
Academies matter because they’re repeat microcosms: they shape dietary attitudes (such as plant-based meals), transport norms, waste habits and resource use behaviours among adolescents, embedding values for life. These young players become adults whose decisions – on consumption, travel and career choices – carry not just sporting weight but cultural influence.
Tactically and financially, academies also offer the sustainability advantage of producing homegrown talent. Clubs that develop technically adept players via low-carbon youth pipelines rely less on international recruitment, costly scouting and player transport. When Barcelona, Ajax, Arsenal or Crystal Palace promote academy graduates, there’s a carbon dividend – less travel, less processing and less immersive consumption.
There are also measurable wins. Arsenal claim that the academy program with Football for Future has helped reduced plastic usage across youth teams and reduced food waste.
Certainly, hurdles remain: not every club has the budget or vision to retrofit dorms or pitch irrigation systems in carbon-smart ways. But the trajectory is clear. When clubs align youth education with environmental responsibility, the ripple effects extend beyond the field. Players carry that ethos into senior locker rooms and eventually to global platforms.
Youth academies stand ready to be football’s unsung eco-heroes. Rather than flashy fan campaigns or one-off plant-based pop-ups, this approach is structural and systemic. It’s teaching sustainability through operations and localised action. If the next generation of stars can think beyond their own boots – toward recycling streams, diets, travel emissions and community engagement – they might just transform the sport from a polluter to a promoter. And that’s a game worth changing.
Harnessing these quiet green currents within academies may not win trophies tomorrow, but it’s one of the few scalable, repeatable and culture-shifting ways football clubs can build for a brighter future on and off the pitch.
This is an excerpt from Ryan Baldi’s “Youth academies stand ready to be football’s unsung eco-heroes” originally published on Football 365.