Arsenal Soccer Club Tackles Climate Change With Clean Energy

Arsenal Football Club said it would power its stadium with renewable energy produced from wasted food and solar panels in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.

The North London club signed a contract with Octopus Energy Ltd. to source energy from anaerobic digestion plants and solar farms. It is offsetting carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels.

The contract signed on Thursday for an undisclosed value followed a year long trial by Arsenal, a spokeswoman for the utility said by phone. Wasted food from the club will be sent to the AD plants that break down organic waste to create biogas and electricity.

Octopus was started in April 2016, backed by renewable energy investors at Octopus Capital Ltd. In the first year the switch helped Arsenal save 2.32 million kilograms (5.1 million pounds) of carbon dioxide, according to the statement.

Arsenal isn’t the only soccer club to use green energy. Forest Green Rovers is a vegan team based in Gloucestershire, owned by the clean-energy supplier Ecotricity Group Ltd. Chairman Dale Vince, who wants his club to be the greenest in the world, is building a new stadium made almost entirely of wood, and already uses a solar-powered robot lawnmower.

Other companies like Apple Inc., Facebook Inc. and Google parent company Alphabet Inc. all plan to run only on green energy over the next few years, marking a growing drive by corporates to buy renewable energy.