Why should your club be a Green Club?
Making a commitment to environmental sustainability is not just about doing the right thing it’s also about doing the smart thing!

Being a Green Club could bring unexpected benefits and rewards such as:

Saving money – Many of the things you can do to reduce your club’s environmental footprint* will also save you money. Cutting energy and water use and better managing waste are efficiency improvements that can reduce your bills and add up to significant savings over time – especially as the price of these services increase.

Demonstrating leadership – ‘Green’ is mainstream and having strong environmental credentials demonstrates leadership and can help to build your reputation in
the community.

Partnering with your council – You may already have a relationship with your local council around management of the grounds and maintenance of club facilities but many more opportunities for connection and support will arise when you get serious about environmental sustainability.

* Your environmental footprint is the impact that you’re having on the environment through your day-to-day operations.

It’s a journey
It’s important that you are able to choose your own sustainability journey from where your club is now – some clubs are already active and moving quickly in this area while others are just starting out. But where you are right now is not as important as where you are going. The following information and advice will help you take positive steps towards improving your club’s environmental performance and help you to achieve Silver and Gold level accreditation in the Quality Clubs program.

The real keys to success are communication and education so that everyone involved in your club gets the message and gets behind it. For example, installing energy efficient light globes is great but if the lights are left on between training sessions you are still being a big energy waster. This means you’re having a bigger environmental impact (through greenhouse gas emissions) and a will receive a bigger energy bill!

What’s in the Green Clubs Module?
This module provides you with information, advice, tools and tips to help your club take steps (large and small) towards environmental sustainability. You’ll also find links to places you can go to for more information. The first part of the module helps you to lay strong foundations by:
- Making a public commitment with an environmental pledge
- Doing an environmental assessment to establish benchmarks
- Developing an action plan (you’ll draw on the second part of the module to do this)
- Suggesting ways to get everyone on board and follow through on your action plan

The second part of the module offers you the building blocks you need to create your action plan. It provides information; suggests specific actions for your plan; and offers tools to support you to achieve those actions.

The final part of the module covers additional resources with links to places you can find more information on a range of environmental topics. It also gives you some advice on seeking funding for some of your environmental initiatives.

We all support our different footy clubs, but everyone should be barracking green!