The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) has started the ISO 14001 standard certification process in the framework of the Erasmus+ GOALS project.
In early April, Prof. Tiberio Daddi from Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, the Italian University based in Pisa that coordinates the GOALS project, spent two days at the FPF headquarters to assess the level of implementation of the environmental practices of the Federation and to evaluate future environmental initiatives to be implemented in the medium term.
In particular, the field visit at the Cidade do Futebol (City of Football) focused on the implementation of the ISO 14001 international certification standard. This certification process maps out a framework that the Federation will follow to set up an effective environmental management system, helping it to improve its environmental performance through more efficient use of resources and reduction of waste.
As part of the GOALS project, the three partner Federations are required to identify and implement governance actions aimed at improving their environmental management. The implementation of ISO14001 is one of the improvement actions identified by FPF. The other two partner Federations involved are the Romanian Federation (FRF) and the Kosovar Federation (FFK). Real Betis Balompié, also partner of the project, will implement 3 improvement actions that can be either governance or operational.
The Portuguese Football Federation has already taken important and innovative steps to make the Cidade do Futebol more environmentally sustainable. For example, it has introduced solar panels for the production of hot sanitary water, it is progressively replacing the lighting system with LED lamps, it is promoting waste recycling and food donation, it is gradually switching to electrical appliances and it has started to use organic compounds for lawn treatment.
The participation in the GOALS project is successfully helping the Federation to further improve its environmental governance and its commitment to reducing the impact of football on the environment.