Southampton Football Club is partnering with Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust to boost nature in the city and create a wilder future.
The Premier League side has become a Team Wilder Champion and will help the Trust share the importance of creating nature recovery networks within urban areas among their supporters.
It has also pledged to take direct action for nature at both St Mary’s Stadium and its Staplewood training ground, including biodiversity projects, education and engagement sessions and community litter picking to protect and preserve the natural environment.
Team Wilder is the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust’s flagship programme which aims to get more people on nature’s side. The Trust wants to see one in four people connecting with wildlife and taking action for nature.
Becky Fisher, Senior Engagement Manager at the Trust, said: “Only this will be enough to tip the balance in nature’s favour and change the behaviour of the majority. Our new collaboration with Southampton Football Club will help turn the tide in favour of nature as their employees, academy, team, and of course their loyal fans and supporters, join us too. The club will be an exemplar of what can happen when we work together.”
Earlie this year the club launched its sustainability strategy, The Halo Effect, and since then has taken huge leaps forward for nature. At Staplewood training ground there has been the introduction of log pile houses, naturally wild hedgerows, non-playing grass areas left to grow and wildflower planting.
Additional tree planting continues to take place across both sites, with more going in the ground across the city as part of the club’s Home Grown Initiative; where 250 trees are planted locally every time an Academy player makes their senior debut in the men’s or women’s first teams. Biodiversity is being incorporated into the Life Skills curriculum for their academy scholars as well as employee and player learning and development programme further showing the commitment to embedding environmental sustainability into its organisational culture.