'Sports – Be Sustainable!' signals start of football stadia sustainability projects

With up to 75,000 fans on a normal matchday, the Allianz Arena holds as many people as a small town. So when it comes to transport to and from the stadium as well as the time there, resourceful and sustainable behaviour are of huge importance – and FC Bayern is conscious of its responsibility. “We bring over a million people to the Arena every year. Our task is to do this with the smallest possible environmental footprint, and we want to do justice to this,” commented Andreas Jung, executive board member of FC Bayern München AG, on the pitch for the project ‘The Mission – Sports Be Sustainable’.

Solutions to make stadia more sustainable

As part of this third part of the initiative, five teams of students have been working over the past three months on solutions to make the operation of football stadia more sustainable. The perspective from outside is intended to provide new input and innovations, which Jürgen Muth is also looking forward to: “I expect ideas, from someone coming at it from outside, from which a new project can be developed together," explained the managing director of Allianz Arena München Stadion GmbH. The aim of the projects is to build an ecosystem that combines innovation and sustainability over the next three to four years. This should have a positive long-term impact on the economy, society and our planet.

The ‘kick-off’ for the project was at the end of July, and on this Thursday the individual teams were guests at the Allianz Arena to present the projects that can be implemented in the coming years. The German record champions and the Allianz Arena, together with partners Allianz, Audi, Telekom, HypoVereinsbank, Siemens, PreZero, Bain & Company and Arabesque, are the patrons of the undertaking. Futury, a spin-off of the Werte-Stiftung, is responsible for the operational management of the projects.

Five teams of students present their projects

The procedure is as follows: over the past three months, each of the five teams has worked in a different field in which more sustainability is desired and feasible. The developers of the ‘Ametix Green’ solution, for example, offer a holistic rating tool with metrics tailored to stadiums. The tool is designed to help German Bundesliga arenas identify their own sustainability deficits and development potential – and to see where they stand in comparison to other operators.

The ‘Fanbloc’ project, on the other hand, focusses on the social component of visiting the arena. The developers have set out to promote an inclusive community in the stadium. An app that enables exchange among fans or provides information should make stadium visitors part of a community. In contrast, the B2B marketplace ‘Volstastic’ links stadium operators with technology developers and providers of sustainable energy solutions.

The ‘GrubGuard’ analysis tool is intended to be useful for better planning of catering and catering services, and thus minimise food waste. The same applies to the app developers of ‘Commensally’, whose aim is to network fans so that they can travel to the stadium together in carpools. This will relieve the traffic system, reduce CO2 emissions – and last but not least, promote social exchange.

As part of the ‘The Mission’ initiative, a total of 12 future-oriented topics will be tackled in three years. The topics include banking, mobility, new working environments and the city of the future. Jung, who incidentally is himself on the panel, was enthusiastic like all the representatives of the sponsors present and was optimistic that the Allianz Arena will look to a sustainable future.