Introduction
Brentford F.C. are a Premier League club based in West London, competing in the league since 2021. We’ve built a reputation for forward-thinking football – doing things differently and doing right by our fans and local community.
As a Premier League club operating on a global stage, we recognise our responsibility to reduce our environmental impact and inspire others to act. Founded in 1889, we want the Club and our communities to thrive for centuries to come. That means protecting the Club against climate-related risks and tackling our impact wherever possible.
This case study focuses on one key part of that work: measuring our carbon footprint & how we approached it, the decisions we made, and what we learned.
What we've done and why
We know that climate change is having a negative effect on our planet and the systems within it, as gases like carbon dioxide trap heat in the atmosphere, and human activity adds extra emissions that strengthen this effect. As a club, we need to reduce our own emissions wherever we can to help limit this impact and play our part in protecting the environment.
Therefore, carbon emissions calculations and analysis were a priority for us, as without accurate data it’s difficult to make confident decisions or deliver meaningful change. By measuring our emissions, we can make targeted interventions, track progress, report clearly and hold ourselves accountable.
The first step was to map our activity. Like many sports clubs, Brentford’s operations are varied and spread across multiple sites – an office, training ground and 17,250-seater stadium, along with everything that happens within them. We needed a clear picture of where emissions were occurring and which stakeholders were involved.
We reviewed our activities to understand where our emissions might be generated, using the GHG protocol as our guide. We then worked with departments across the club to identify relevant data sources. Some examples include:
- The Finance team held data relating to the amount of energy we purchase (Scope 1 &2) and amount our staff claim on travel expenses (Scope 1 & 3), and work directly with all of our suppliers.
- Our Catering and stadium catering partner Levy held the key data on food and drink consumption and sourcing (Scope 3: Category 1 – Goods & Services), but also provided data on waste (Scope 3: Category 5)
- Other key contributors included the People team who helped compile data on staff commuting (Scope 3 Category 7), the Football Operations department shared the numbers behind team travel (Scope 3 Category 6), our retail team gave us merchandise numbers, and helped us pinpoint major external suppliers (Scope 3 Category 1)
Having developed this mapping across departments, activities and suppliers, we worked with our colleagues to gather the relevant data. Data came back in varying forms, levels of accuracy, timeframes and in some cases, it didn’t exist. The key for us was to engage in continuous dialogue with all parties, be flexible in our asks and expectations, and be willing to do the digging ourselves where necessary.
As the data materialised, we used the UEFA Carbon Calculator & methodology to convert the data into GHG emissions. The tool uses the GHG protocol and helps to align it to the football industry. Before the tool was published, we were relying on the emissions factors published by The UK Government each year.
Towards the end of 2024, we had developed a GHG emissions data set with a mix of high quality, medium quality & some estimated data. Our total emissions were 8,765 tCO2e, broken down by Scope as Scope 1 (527 tCO2e), Scope 2 (705 tCO2e) & Scope 3 (7,553 tCO2e).
The final step was to share this data externally and communicate our findings. We published the figures in our first ever Sustainability report – Brentford FC 2023/24 Sustainability Report – and included technical information, our approach and where we had data gaps.Therefore, carbon emissions calculations and analysis were a priority for us, as without accurate data it’s difficult to make confident decisions or deliver meaningful change. By measuring our emissions, we can make targeted interventions, track progress, report clearly and hold ourselves accountable.
The first step was to map our activity. Like many sports clubs, Brentford’s operations are varied and spread across multiple sites – an office, training ground and 17,250-seater stadium, along with everything that happens within them. We needed a clear picture of where emissions were occurring and which stakeholders were involved.
We reviewed our activities to understand where our emissions might be generated, using the GHG protocol as our guide. We then worked with departments across the club to identify relevant data sources. Some examples include:
The Finance team held data relating to the amount of energy we purchase (Scope 1 &2) and amount our staff claim on travel expenses (Scope 1 & 3), and work directly with all of our suppliers.
Our Catering and stadium catering partner Levy held the key data on food and drink consumption and sourcing (Scope 3: Category 1 – Goods & Services), but also provided data on waste (Scope 3: Category 5)
Other key contributors included the People team who helped compile data on staff commuting (Scope 3 Category 7), the Football Operations department shared the numbers behind team travel (Scope 3 Category 6), our retail team gave us merchandise numbers, and helped us pinpoint major external suppliers (Scope 3 Category 1)
Having developed this mapping across departments, activities and suppliers, we worked with our colleagues to gather the relevant data. Data came back in varying forms, levels of accuracy, timeframes and in some cases, it didn’t exist. The key for us was to engage in continuous dialogue with all parties, be flexible in our asks and expectations, and be willing to do the digging ourselves where necessary.
As the data materialised, we used the UEFA Carbon Calculator & methodology to convert the data into GHG emissions. The tool uses the GHG protocol and helps to align it to the football industry. Before the tool was published, we were relying on the emissions factors published by The UK Government each year.
Towards the end of 2024, we had developed a GHG emissions data set with a mix of high quality, medium quality & some estimated data. Our total emissions were 8,765 tCO2e, broken down by Scope as Scope 1 (527 tCO2e), Scope 2 (705 tCO2e) & Scope 3 (7,553 tCO2e).
The final step was to share this data externally and communicate our findings. We published the figures in our first ever Sustainability report – Brentford FC 2023/24 Sustainability Report – and included technical information, our approach and where we had data gaps.
How the data and findings informed next steps
The process and findings were informative for several reasons.
Firstly, they have allowed us to tangibly decarbonise and legitimately being our attempt to reach net zero emissions. Calculating our emissions has given us a baseline to work from.
The 2023/24 numbers also helped us identify priority action areas. Across Scope 1, 2 and 3, we identified high-impact emissions where alternatives were available.
- We’ve switched to wild venison across the stadium, as it has up to 85% lower emissions than farmed beef.
- At the stadium we use 100% renewable energy and we’ve moved to purchasing biogas and biodiesel fuels instead of more carbon intensive natural gas and diesel.
- Our football kits are made from recycled polyester, reducing emissions by up to ~70% compared to virgin polyester.
Other areas were less straightforward.
- Fans are the lifeblood of the game, but thousands travelling each matchday generates significant emissions. We want and need their support, but we want to help them travel more sustainably.
- In 2025, we partnered with Trainline on ‘I Came By Train’, offering 20% off away rail tickets.
- We run the Bike to Brentford initiative, encouraging fans to cycle to home games.
These ideas & solutions represent a huge amount of work & support from all teams across the Club. Having an established carbon footprint provided the foundation to collaborate internally and prioritise action – and budget accordingly. The efforts above are ongoing and will continue to evolve as we move forward.
The analysis showed we still need to improve our data collection and calculation processes. Our data confidence was 37% high, 62% medium and 2% low. High confidence data came from exact figures, medium combined some exact data with reasonable assumptions; and low confidence data was based on spend data.
To address this, we’ve worked with an external software provider to automate data collection as far as possible, for example extracting data from the different platforms where it sits and regularly engaging with our suppliers to gather sales reports. They also support with reformatting this data into the structure we need to input it into the UEFA Carbon Calculator Tool, as well as interpreting the ensuing output report.
What does moving forward look like?
With a baseline established, the Club is now fully committed to reducing our GHG emissions as far as possible. We will continue to measure, analyse & report regularly internally and externally, but we’re also pushing to improve our approach – and the approach taken by those we work with.
We’re continuing to work with our suppliers to develop increasingly accurate data wherever possible. For example after a discussion with Asahi and their sustainability team, they were able to provide more specific emissions factors for the beer we sell in the stadium. This means we can convert the litres amount into greenhouse gases more accurately and so going forward we can be more precise in our reporting.
We’re also working with our industry and community partners. We sit in the Premier League Sustainability Working Group, and share our ideas & learnings there, and work with UEFA on developing their guidance and methodology.
Fan travel is a key point of collaboration. We’ve worked hard to develop a data set on our own fans’ travel, and have sense checked this with the relevant partners. Using this as a foundation, we’re now working with the Premier League, UEFA and our peers to develop a methodology to calculate emissions from these fans, but also to promote a consistent approach across the industry, to allow for comparison between clubs, wider analysis and development of collective action. Working with our peers allows us to be confident in our approach, and solve common issues relating to carbon emissions, as shared solutions can have a significant impact.
Our key learnings and advice for others
- Start with scoping your boundaries – map your activities, identify who owns the data you need and build those relationships early, both internally & externally
- Accept that data quality will be variable – focus on establishing an effective data collection method & robust baseline, not achieving perfection
- Collaborating & involving others in the data collection process can build momentum for future action – we found the process helped to raise awareness of the scale of our impact, and encouraged action
- Share your methodology and results transparently – peer learning accelerates progress across the sector
