ClubLFC demonstrates its commitment to The Red Way in latest report

The Red Way 2022-23 season report, published today, celebrates the club’s sustainability achievements across those three areas and highlights its journey to promoting positive behavioural change and reducing its impact on the environment.

Since its launch in January 2021, The Red Way has been embedded into every aspect of the club’s operations, ensuring that its fans, staff, partners and suppliers continue to work collectively to help drive and achieve its ambitious targets and make a real impact.

LFC is proud to continue to lead the way on governance in this space, being the only club to be certified to ISO20121 (sustainability), ISO45001 (health and safety) and ISO50001 (energy), meaning it is sustainably certified and internationally recognised for its ability to deliver sustainable events.

For the second consecutive year, the club has topped the Sport Positive League as the most environmentally sustainable Premier League football club. This is the first of several awards wins for LFC’s sustainability strategy, including at the Football Business Awards, Sports Business Awards, Brand Finance Awards and SEAL Awards.

The 2022-23 season report showcases the strides that have been made across each of the three key pillars of people, planet and communities.

Firstly, within the planet pillar, highlights include achieving a 29 per cent reduction in emissions against the previous season (2021-22), running 94 per cent of club operations on clean energy and offsetting 100 per cent of emissions from its football operations, all of which contribute towards the club’s aim of achieving net zero by 2040.

A rise in fan awareness and positive behaviour change has also resulted in plastic bottle waste recycling on matchdays increasing from 25 per cent (2021-22) to 90 per cent (2022-23).

A total of 90 per cent of retail packaging and materials are now sustainable, from sugar poly bags to recycled paper and card, with suppliers aligning with the club’s sustainability commitments and carbon targets.

The club is also leading the way on its use of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) to fuel its team buses, which creates a reduction in carbon emissions of up to 90 per cent from regular diesel.

LFC’s extensive work with its people, via the Red Together programme – which champions equality, diversity and inclusion – also forms an important part of the report.

It reveals how LFC maintained the highest level of the Premier League’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Standard, after being the first club to achieve the recognition in 2017. This was achieved as a result of the commitment and implementation of its club-wide strategy by leadership.

The club’s work with the United Nations also continues to develop, as it works towards meeting 14 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, from attending the Eradicate Hate Global Summit sports event in New York to hosting the UN Eradicate Hate work summit at Anfield.

Community is part of Liverpool FC’s DNA and its work under the communities pillar reflects its continued growth in this area.

Most of the club’s work in the community is delivered by its official charity, LFC Foundation. In the last three years (2021 to 2023), LFC Foundation has delivered more than £65 million in health benefits and contributed more than £16 million directly into the local economy, with an overall social value of more than £192 million. For every £1 spent or raised for the Foundation, it is able to create a social return of £13.

The report also reflects the considerable role official club partners continue to play in helping to drive The Red Way.

SC Johnson’s collaboration on LFC’s plastic bottle recycling collection campaign at Anfield has ensured its continued success, achieving a 90 per cent recycling rate on matchdays, an increase of 65 per cent on the previous year (25 per cent in 2021-22).

The club’s official global training partner, AXA, provided funding for mental health first aid training and qualifications for more than 35 LFC staff.

Principal partner Standard Chartered and the club also launched the ‘Play On’ initiative to inspire, empower and educate girls in sports, through play, equal competitive opportunities, support and mentorship, and a supportive sports environment.

Rishi Jain, director of impact at LFC, said: “The Red Way is a priority for the club, and it has been fantastic to see how quickly it has been adopted and implemented into every aspect of the business.

“The commitment our fans, staff, partners and stakeholders have demonstrated to The Red Way has also played a significant role in its success to date and will continue to support its ambitious goals to build a better future for our people, planet and communities.”

• To find out more about The Red Way and view the 2022-23 season report, please visit www.liverpoolfc.com/theredway.