‘SDG Striker’, an international project that promotes the Sustainable Development Goals through sport

The Catalan non-profit Ecoserveis leads the Erasmus+ project ‘SDG Striker’ in order to increase the organisational capacity for Good Governance in grassroots sport organisations. It assists them to implement and communicate the Sustainable Development Goals through actions at local level so they can align themselves with European, national and local public policy on SDGs.

The initiative will last from January 2021 until June 2023 and will count with three technical partners: Ecoserveis as the coordinator, Energieinstitut at the Johannes Kepler University as scientific lead, EFDN as communication experts, and NFF, SFA and FPF as pilot partners to test innovative sustainable solutions.

This is done through the testing of three pilots in Portugal, Scotland and Norway. The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) will do a feasibility study to evaluate the costs, return and other social and economic impacts of installing PhotoVoltaic solar panels in sports’ facilities- This will be related with tackling SDG 7 (affordable clean energy), 11 (sustainable cities and communities), 12 (responsible consumption and production), and 13 (climate action).

In Scotland, the Scotish Football Association (SFA) will create a campaign to increase the efficiency of sports’ facilities and raise-awareness on energy poverty, including training actions to reduce energy bills. The actions will be linked with tackling SDG 1 (no poverty - thanks to the energy poverty campaign), 7 (affordable clean energy), 10 (reduced inequalities) 12 (responsible consumption and production) 13 (climate action) and 17 (partnerships for the goals).

Finally, in Norway, the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) will create a document on greener alternatives to microplastics to be used as infill material for artificial football pitches, including a Life Cycle Assessment and a comparative environmental impact analysis of new technologies. This will be linked with tackling and tackpromoting SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure), 11 (sustainable cities and communities), 12 (responsible consumption and production), and 13 (climate action).

In addition, SDG Striker will develop a joint understanding about best practices before, during and after being tested, and assess their potential for replication across the national Federations and beyond national borders.