United's plans set to use 'bad products for emissions' and will require a mammoth 'excavation' before the new ground has even been built
Manchester United’s plans for a 100,000-seater stadium to replace Old Trafford will make a significant dent in the UK’s carbon budget and create huge emissions, architects have warned.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe unveiled proposals on Tuesday for a £2bn project to build a “best in the world” ground depicted as the “Eiffel Tower” of the North-west, a global destination capable of attracting a billion tourists.
Old Trafford will be demolished, with hopes that the new ground will be completed no later than 2032 and an initial target date of 2030.
“Outside of the Gatwick runway, you won’t get many projects making that kind of dent in our carbon budget,” Mark Rowe, the existing buildings group co-ordinartor at Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN), tells The i Paper.
CGIs published earlier this week revealed plans for a glass and steel “umbrella” canopy, with three towers inspired by the trident on the club’s Red Devils logo – “pretty bad products for emissions”, Rowe points out.
United plan to reduce some of the environmental impact of the stadium by implementing some “green” measures, which include harvesting energy and rainwater through the roof.
However, the extent to which they will offset the up-front embodied carbon emissions associated with the project would be “minimal”, insists architect Rebecca Cooprer
“My first question would be ‘what’s there already?’” Cooper says.
“Are they demolishing anything in addition to constructing a whole new stadium because there are emissions associated with that – the same goes for the old stadium.
“You’re talking about a huge excavation to even begin the footings of a building like that, and huge amounts of material, all with very high embodied carbon – and what is meant by that is the carbon emissions associated with the production of that material – so things like concrete and steel inherently have very high embodied carbon, as opposed to material like timber.”
In February, the UK’s Climate Change Committee made its recommendations for the Seventh Carbon Budget, which aims to work towards net zero emissions from 2038 to 2042.
The United stadium project will be delivered well before that timeframe but the UK’s carbon budget is already “very limited” even without building anything new, Cooper says – “let alone building anything else to add to that pile”.
What is embodied carbon?
“Embodied carbon is the hidden climate cost of our buildings. It refers to the carbon emissions released before a single match is played – through the extraction of raw materials, the manufacturing of steel and concrete, transportation, construction, and even demolition” – Jonathan Irawan, ACAN coordinator
“We need to be thinking super carefully about where that carbon is spent. Should it be prioritising a carbon intensive football stadium when we already have one, or improving climate resilience and regenerating the city in different ways?”
The CGI images are not necessarily the final design and could change closer to construction. They also unveiled huge regeneration of the area around the ground, including plans to build 17,000 homes.
United say that will tie in with Labour’s growth agenda, with the new ground potentially delivering more than £7bn a year to the economy. That vision will nevertheless demand new infrastructure, rather than utilising existing buildings.
“In terms of looking at the big numbers, there’s 19,000 homes coming but there are 40,000 empty homes in the North-west of England,” says Rowe, who also heads up carbon sufficiency consultancy less.eco.
“If you said they need a new stadium, there’s lots of ways they could have a lower carbon impact than what those [CGI] images imply. They could use their own stadium, or the great taboo in this country is, there’s a perfectly good stadium they could share in the east of Manchester, that’s a big carbon win.”
The biggest stadiums in the UK (Picture: The i Paper)
The prospect of sharing the Etihad with Manchester City was never entertained but within the industry, discussion are underway about how to prioritise building with timber, straw and other regenerative materials.
The sustainable measures United have put in place are therefore essential if they want to attract investors and sponsors.
“More and more of our clients involved in significant projects actually view the sustainability piece as fundamental, including from a brand and marketing perspective,” explains Sadie Pitman, an associate in the planning team at law firm Chales Russell Speechlys.
“We would expect any investors or funders in the project to not just view a sustainable development strategy as a ‘nice to have’, but a critical factor in deciding whether or not to put up the cash that the club will need to build.”
In September 2024, the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard was launched to set out clear limits and targets for new buildings.
Football grounds will struggle to fit within those restrictions, though Forest Green Rovers – the club Fifa describe as the “greenest in the world” – were recently given planning permission for an all-wooden 5,000-seater stadium in Gloucestershire.
“The emissions and the impact that resourcing material has globally, particularly on the Global South and on the people who are working, or being extorted, to provide the materials for this kind of infrastructure whilst living the reality of the consequences of climate change, is ongoing,” Cooper explains.
“This particular stadium [at United] won’t be directly influencing that, but it’s part of that system that needs interrogating much more.
“How do we move away from this culture of thinking ‘we need something shiny and brand new’ to regenerate a place. There needs to be massive cultural transformation in the industry in terms of how we regard existing infrastructure and how we maintain and reuse it.”
The i Paper has contacted Manchester United for comment.