Goalkeeper Alexei Rojas-Fedorushchenko this week visited a local north London school to be part of a sustainability workshop run by Arsenal in the Community.
Alexei joined students at Arts and Media School Islington to learn more about sustainability and football’s role in inspiring positive change, including some of our own plans to be net-zero by 2040.
The visit took place during Green Football’ Great Save campaign, which runs from March 11 to April 2 and is focused on preventing sportswear from going to waste.
Students also presented their own ideas on how to reduce the number of football kits going to landfill, and how to encourage others to take action, before they took to the pitch for a football session run by Alexei and Arsenal in the Community coaches.
Alexei, who has always been one of the club’s great ambassadors for sustainability since he arrived in 2019, said “the session was really engaging and it was great to see the knowledge the class already had about sustainability. They understood that we all have a collective duty to act for our environment, and it was special that we could inspire each other with new ideas to be more sustainable.
“It’s massive to bring young people with us on this journey because we’re the ones who are going to make the difference going forward and drive positive change. I’m proud to be at a club that supports our community – not just with sustainability programmes like this, but everything we do in our local area.
“Football is the biggest sport in the world with an influence over millions of people. I understand that we have an impact on the environment, and we’re not insulated from the effects of climate change. Therefore, we have a responsibility as a sport to use our platform to take responsibility, build resilience, and drive positive action together with our local community and supporters globally to make our planet more sustainable.”
We became the only football club in the world to have a net-zero target approved by the globally respected Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in November last year. This commits us to achieving net-zero by 2040 in line with the most ambitious pathway to limit global temperature rises.
Whilst our net-zero action plan is focused on reducing the footprint of our operations, education and raising awareness remains a core pillar of our wider approach to inspire change across our communities in north London and around the world.
Through Arsenal in the Community, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, we partner with local primary and secondary schools to develop climate change, adaptation and resilience programmes for students.
These largely take place during the Spring term, coinciding with key climate action events such as Green Football, Global Recycling Day, and Earth Day.
Sarah Jacobs, Co-founder and Director at Green Football, said “It is fantastic to see Alexei inspiring the younger generation to help save kit from landfill and talk about the importance of tackling climate change. Football has an unequalled power to drive change, whether it’s donating a shirt or finding a new purpose for old kit, every action contributes to reducing waste, promoting sustainability in football and helping to protect the game we love.”
We will be running a special collection point where supporters can donate their old kit at their next Premier League home fixture against Fulham on April 1.
This will be held at the foodbank donation point, located on the podium level, near the Tony Adams statue at the North East corner of the stadium between Gates E and F.
Through Premier League Inspires, we work year-round in Islington, Hackney & Camden to help young people aged 11-18 develop the skills and confidence they need to succeed. Funded by the Premier League and PFA, the programme harnesses the power of football to inspire the next generation.
Supporters can also score green goals for Arsenal in the Green Football Cup by taking climate-friendly pledges and actions by taking part at greenfootball.org.
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