Chair: Let's be on the right side of history

All of us here have a vital role in making our sector sustainable.

We know it’s not an easy task, and sadly 2025 has seen our headwinds strengthen. This year brings a raft of new reports and research highlighting the growing threat, and of course sport is being impacted along with everyone else.

Last month was the world’s warmest January on record.  

UK insurers confirmed that flooding is getting worse, with record claims in 2024 totalling over half a billion. And part of that is ever-more waterlogged pitches and stadia.

A report by the Scientists for Global Responsibility and the New Weather Institute – entitled Dirty Tackle – found that, without action, a quarter of the UK’s football pitches could be partially or totally flooded by 2050.

At the same time as football is bearing the sporting brunt, the report also claims that the global football industry is responsible for between 64 and 66 million tonnes of CO2 each year. 

That’s as much as the entire nation of Austria, a country with a population of over nine million.

However, I don’t want to linger on constantly reiterating and quantifying the problem – we know what it is. I want to talk to you proactively and positively about sustainable facilities, and about our sector, including football, moving to be part of the solution.

Every Move and the circular economy

Sport England’s mission is to get more people active and we can’t do that if pitches are unusable, you can’t reach them because of flooding or events are too hot to hold. So this is personal for us and to our stakeholders for very pragmatic reasons. 

People who are active are much more likely to be happy and healthy. And healthy people is what the health care system desperately needs. Active people already relieve some of the NHS burden, preventing 1.3 million cases of depression, 600,000 of diabetes and 57,000 of the UK’s leading cause of death – dementia – saving billions a year.  

We can also be the link here. Which is what led Sport England to publish our first-ever environmental sustainability strategy, Every Move, last year. 

In developing the strategy, we talked to the sector – many of you – and participants. 

We found three in five adults had at some point been prevented from taking part in a sport or being active by extreme weather.  

Four in 10 sports organisations had experienced weather-related disruptions to their activities.  

The FA alone estimated that 120,000 football matches are being lost annually due to adverse weather conditions. That’s the equivalent of seven million minutes of community football lost in one year alone.

A big focus of our strategy is promoting the move to a circular economy, and I am delighted to be joined today by so many pioneers in that area. 

Launching a strategy is not difficult… but delivering one is. 

What we’re doing

So, let me tell you a little about the work we are actually doing to make it a reality.

Firstly, Sport England owns three big national sports centres: Bisham Abbey, Lilleshall and Plas Y Brenin in Wales. 

We are working alongside their operators to insulate buildings and invest in new heating technologies, to make them energy efficient and ultimately, sustainable.

We are being deliberate about the equipment and food we buy, favouring sustainable suppliers, and we are actively increasing our understanding of biodiversity to maximise our ‘ecosystem service’, such as creating places to hold excess rainfall. 

Secondly, we’re using Sport England’s spending power to help create circular economies. 

Alongside this, we will promote and enable the recycling and redistribution of sports clothing and equipment to benefit grassroots clubs and participants most in need. 

Thirdly, we, in partnership with the government, are investing £80 million to improve the energy efficiency of public leisure facilities with pools.

In fact, as I speak, there are already 570 interventions – from solar power installation to the fitting of air handling units –  under way.  

Each and every one is improving the energy efficiency of a facility and, crucially right now, reducing running costs.

Our partners are stepping up too. I applaud the FA for their Greener Game programme in partnership with E.ON, supporting grassroots clubs to decarbonise, reduce their energy needs, and cut their bills and environmental impact. 

And one of the ways the Premier League supports clubs to develop their infrastructure sustainably is through the LED Floodlight Fund, which provides grants to clubs throughout the National League System and Women’s Football Pyramid to install energy-efficient floodlights, helping to reduce their energy costs and carbon footprint.

But lastly, and this is a tough one, we have committed to tackling the issue of plastics.

Plastic does not biodegrade and can take up to 1,000 years to break down. And even when it does, it simply breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces.

Micro-plastics leaching into soil and water causing what we are now realising is huge damage to the environment and our health.  

And while the majority of plastic does not come from the sport and physical activity sector, we must acknowledge the part we play in this problem.

So how do we want history to judge us?  

Kicking single-use plastics out of sport

It was certainly heartening to see both athletes and organisations starting to act – such as a cohort of over 100 athletes calling on Coca Cola and Pepsi to increase their use of reusable packaging ahead of the 2024 Olympics.

That leadership makes a difference, and it needs to: in 2021 the Environment Agency found major sporting events each generate up to 750,000 plastic bottles.

Putting a spotlight on action – or inaction – is needed for change. Not just castigating but applauding those who are acting strongly. 

And we are seeing change all around us. For example, The Oval cricket ground has become completely plastic-free. The venue has banned the use of plastic straws, introduced compostable coffee cups, and has phased out the use of plastic bags in the club shop. 

The Wimbledon Championships has reduced the number of single-use plastic water bottles by more than half a million over the last six years. 

They’ve proved it’s doable and, in doing so, created a positive pressure on others to follow suit. 

We are not trying to sell something unpopular here either.60% of British adults saying they will try and cut down the amount of plastic they use over the next 12 months; they just need to be given a way to join in.

And people are prepared to do their bit. More than 2,500 paddlers joined in last year’s Big Paddle Clean Up, removing more than 1,800 sacks full of plastic from British waterways. It’s inspiring stuff.

3G pitches, microplastics and rubber infill 

If we are going to be authentic in talking about plastics, we do have to discuss artificial grass pitches, a topic that is one of the most difficult in Sport England’s in-tray. 

Do you ever wonder why we stopped calling them ‘plastic pitches?’ Is it because it makes us feel more comfortable about them? 

From a sporting point of view, artificial grass pitches, or AGPs, have become an integral part of community sport because as far as activity is concerned, they’re brilliant.

They provide a reliable, year-round playing surface, regardless of the weather. A properly maintained artificial grass pitch can sustain up to 80 hours of use a week, or 1,400 playing opportunities. 

Compared to a natural grass pitch, which can sustain just six hours a week and around 100 playing opportunities… that kind of difference is hard to ignore.

Almost half of these pitches are based at schools or in education settings and have become integral to the PE curriculum. 

This reliability of service and availability, often in areas of greater need, is incredibly attractive, especially as we’re now much more aware of what the burden of inactivity costs us.

People who are already active save our country £540 million on reduced GP visits and £780 million every year on reduced mental health service use. 

Artificial pitches play a significant part in realising those benefits. In fact, our current stock of 3G pitches across England is estimated to be worth almost £500 million per year in social value.

But we can’t shy away from the fact that these wonderful health benefits are producing negative costs downstream.

The breakdown of plastic grass, and the roughly 50 tonnes of rubber infill each pitch currently requires, are producing microplastics.

If we are to continue using them, we must:

• In the short term, get very good at containment.
• And at the same time, vastly improve end-of-life recycling.

Up to 500 pitches reach the end of their life every year – two to three times the current UK capacity for recycling at the single venue capable of doing it.

If we don’t change, history will judge us and rightly so. I and Sport England are determined to be on the right side it. 

Today, we are committing to work together with Government and our partners to tackle these two issues, and kick more plastic out of sport. 

It feels uncomfortable, focusing on football so much. We know there are other sports and activities that use artificial pitches but, as our nation’s most popular sport, change here would have a ripple effect across our sector.  

There are steps we can take now.

In September 2023, the European Commission adopted the EU REACH Regulation (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) on the sale of intentionally added microplastics onto the European market. This includes rubber infill for artificial pitches.

Pragmatically, the Commission confirmed an eight-year transition period before the new restriction becomes effective. From October 2031, you'll no longer be able to purchase rubber infill within the EU. 

The ruling does not prevent the continued use of this material for 3G pitches, nor does it prevent the construction of new pitches with rubber infill before 2031.

But it will make the maintenance of these pitches after this time difficult, incentivising us all to commit to moving away from its use and giving time to make that change. 

However, that clear leadership and a fixed date mean that change is now guaranteed. 

Following the UK’s exit from the EU, we are not bound into this: the regulatory framework for these matters now sits at a UK level.

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) recently commissioned an evidence project to review emissions of intentionally added microplastics in the UK, including rubber infill. 

That project is expected to report in the spring. It will shine a light on this issue and inform any potential future regulatory action in Great Britain.

We are already working with the Football Foundation to explore a potential transition away from rubber infill, looking at what infill has the least impact on the environment and finding more recycling capacity for 3G pitches when they come to the end of their useful life. 

Indeed, the Foundation are currently testing six alternative infill systems and the effectiveness of containment measures to reduce the level of infill leaving the pitches.

I’d like to acknowledge this important groundwork, but I also want us to do more as a sector. 

Today, I would like to set out how Sport England is committed to working in partnership with three key audiences.

Firstly, working with the government, we must do three important things.

1. End uncertainty and decide whether or not we will follow the EU’s directive. If so, then let’s set a deadline for the transition away from rubber infill as our neighbours have.
    
2. Secondly, alongside this, increase the capacity for end-of-life recycling. Over the next five years, it is estimated that the total amount of carpet in England reaching the end of life, and that could be recycled, is equivalent to an area larger than Truro in Cornwall.  
    
3. Finally, we will work with Defra to prioritise these issues and work with the sporting sector in its work to promote a circular economy.

To the sporting system, including partners like the Football Foundation, I say let’s prove the cynics and the sceptics wrong, who say the current pilots are a way of – if you excuse the pun – kicking the issue into the long grass. 

Let’s redouble efforts and increase investment to find the sustainable solutions needed.

Nobody is pretending it’s easy but, from what I have seen this year, I am now fully convinced it is doable. 

And finally, to participants and users of 3G pitches, as well as those in charge of sites: do everything you can to keep plastics on the pitch. 

Banging your boots before you leave the pitch seems incredibly simplistic advice to give against a far bigger issue, but it’s certainly a start. Let’s make it cultural. 

For our part, Sport England will continue to step up. We are actively looking at how we can deliver a coordinated information and guidance campaign for artificial pitches. 

We will work with partners including SAPCA, the Football Foundation and the Grounds Management Association to influence consumer behaviour.

We must coordinate guidance to minimise the loss of rubber infill into the environment, whilst we also find alternative solutions, at pace.

Users, operators pitch designers, consultants, manufacturers and installers: we must all work together to succeed.

Sport England will use its convening power to help, but it will require a multi-agency approach, so I call on SAPCA, its members, NGBs and other partners in the room to play your part too. 

Conclusion

From wireless gears in cycling, super shoes and faster Mondo tracks in athletics, to the widespread use of wearable tech across all levels of sport, the sector has long been at the very forefront of innovation.

Let’s harness that thirst for improvement and commitment to innovation in the service of something even bigger. 

Let’s take action we can be proud of.