Supporting Green Football Weekend - biodiversity

Tottenham Hotspur is proud to be supporting Green Football Weekend, a campaign to raise awareness of how individual action can take the fight to climate change.

In the lead up to Green Football Weekend (February 2-5), the Club is highlighting steps fans can take to reduce their own carbon footprint in a number of areas, with the help of expert environmental journalist, Anna Turns.

In the final segment, Anna explains the importance of protecting the natural environment and promoting biodiversity...

What the Club does

• A detailed Ecological Management Plan is in place at all sites to monitor and manage ecological activity.
• The Club has planted hundreds of new and semi-mature trees and tens of thousands of new plants, hedges and flowers across its Training Centre, as well as a Wildflower Meadow, to establish the ecological habitat.
• In our conservation area, we have also created two additional wildlife ponds, 25 bug hotels and multiple bat houses. The attenuation pond has also been enhanced to not only fulfil its practical application, but the creation of a natural wetland and intermittent wetland habitat with additional ponds and wildlife.
• Our sites are evaluated under Greenspace Information for Greater London, Multi-Agency Geographic Information for the Countryside, and the National Biodiversity Network Gateway.

Anna's tips

“Conservation isn’t just about making places look pretty for the sake of it - far from it. Our outdoor spaces can provide valuable habitats for native wildlife and offer resilience to extreme weather events such as floods or droughts, so looking after our green and blue spaces is good for people and planet.

“By planting multi-layered, colourful and more varied flowers, hedgerows and trees, areas can be transformed. The real beauty of this is that every corner of green space, from a roundabout to a front garden, can become a stepping stone in this network, however small. And if you don’t have a garden, you could still put up a bird box or bug hotel, or get your sports team, colleagues or classmates involved in a community garden project.”

Top tips

1. MAKE SPACE FOR NATURE - whether you have a window box, small patio or huge garden, plant nectar-rich flowers.
2. BE AN ECO-CONSCIOUS GARDENER - use peat-free compost and avoid using harmful pesticide chemicals like glyphosate (commonly marketed as RoundUp) on your veg patch or flower beds.
3. EMBRACE THE MESS - let the wildflowers grow long in your lawn, leave a patch of nettles for the caterpillars, build a log pile as a hideaway for slowworms and create a small pond for frogs and other creatures.

“True sustainability isn’t about being perfect – it’s about transparency, innovation and progress and every little change counts, which is why what football clubs and their fans do really matters, both at home and away from the pitch,” Anna concludes.

“Together, many people making lots of small changes is a big win for the planet.”

Visit https://www.greenfootballweekend.com/ to take an individual action or pledge against climate change.