Sutton United CSR Report 2022/23

FOREWORD

by Bruce Elliott, Chairman, Sutton United FC

We have now completed two seasons as a Football League club and, in addition to the obvious differences on the pitch, we have seen a significant evolution in all other areas of the club. We celebrated our 125th anniversary in March with a free party after our game against Crewe Alexandra and on that day played in a special, one-off red kit designed to celebrate the clubs that had come together in 1898 to form Sutton United. It is fascinating to muse upon what those founding members would have thought of their creation 125 years later, but we can be sure that they would be proud of the place that we have carved for ourselves in English football.

The club has grown, even in the last two decades, and is no longer just about its senior men’s teams. We now have three adult women’s teams competing in the football pyramid, alongside more than twenty girls and boys age-group teams plus disability and veterans’ teams.

Our academy now has two distinct parts, our elite programme of players which we were delighted to see awarded Category 3 status, and our college programme which allows players to receive high quality football coaching alongside an equally high quality education in a range of BTEC subjects.

We continue to run three pan-disability teams, all with a waiting list of players, and were delighted to see Aaron Lucas chosen for the England cerebral palsy team that finished as runners-up in the European championships.

We also run three senior women’s teams, with the first eleven promoted for the 2022/23 season into the London & South-East Regional Women’s League Premier Division. After a difficult start in a league that represents a significant step up in quality we had a good finish to the season and finished in a solid 8th position. In the South-East Counties Women’s Football League our Reserves finished as runners-up in the Surrey Premier Division and our Development team finished 4th in the step below. We were delighted to see Lily Dent secure a move to Women’s Super League club Brighton & Hove Albion.

Walking football continues to prove very popular and is held twice weekly at the local Goals centre.

Redevelopment work was completed at the “away end” of our stadium and we are now able to provide

both home and away supporters with dedicated fans’ zones on matchdays. The Goodliffe Stand was well used by spectators who need to use wheelchairs, although our provision will need to change for the 23/24 season as we prepare for the next round of required stadium redevelopment, but we are planning to increase the total number of spaces available. During the season we also introduced the U’s Memories initiative, to support spectators who may be feeling disorientated or confused, and we also explored a new dedicated commentary service for those who are visually impaired. We have not yet been able to introduce that service but it is on our “to do” list. Nevertheless, we were extremely pleased over the course of the year to receive so many positive emails from spectators with disabilities for doing our best to help them and to make them feel welcome at games. We also received a good number of testimonials praising our matchday stewards, who were regularly called an example for others to follow.

We were delighted to be awarded Family Excellence Status for the 2022/23 season, joining a record number of 66 EFL Clubs in achieving the accolade. The Family Excellence scheme sees clubs receive two visit assessments each season, in order to determine the quality of the family matchday experiences they provide. The scheme recognises the continuous improvement and best practice that emerges across the League and rewards clubs for their efforts in attracting and retaining young supporters.

The Football League introduced its new Green Clubs in 2022 initiative and although we did not meet the level required for accreditation at the first attempt we have developed and are working through an improvement plan. We have put in place both an Environmental Management System aligned to ISO:14001 and an Energy Management System, with monthly reporting to our COO, and introduced initiatives such as vape recycling. We even hosted an innovative training session on the impacts of Climate Change to which representatives of the EFL and Sky were invited. We believe the level of detail we provide in our public reporting in terms of our Scope 3 carbon impacts still leads the way for football in this country.

We have only recently started on our journey as a Football League club and this is much more that we want to do in terms of fairness, equality, inclusion and respect to make football accessible, enjoyable and safe for everyone, on the pitch and on the terraces. Bruce

GOVERNANCE

The club is owned in its entirety by Sutton United Football Club Ltd.

The club continues to follow the philosophy of the original directors that we should be a communitybased club owned by “Sutton United people”.

At the end of the 2021/22 season the club and company initiated some very necessary restructuring, brought about in terms of both essential changes to help cope with the demands of being a Football League club and by the personal circumstances of various club personnel.

When appointed in 2011, Dave Farebrother had stated that he would not want to be in office for more than ten years. That period, the most tumultuous and successful in the club’s history, would have ended right in the middle of the club’s transition from the National League to the EFL, and so Dave stayed on until May 2022 when he confirmed his wish to retire from the board of directors. David Mathers, vicechairman of the board, announced that he would also retire at the same time. A third director, Match Secretary Graham Starns, also decided to step down from the board.

All three remain involved with the club through the Senior Leadership Team and, of course, we thank them for their many years of dedication on the board and in their ongoing roles. As we have discovered, the

demands of being a full-time EFL club are even greater than at the highest levels of non-League football and balancing voluntary club duties with work and personal life is never easy.

So, in a re-shuffle of responsibilities, directors Adrian Barry and Tim Allison took up full-time roles in the club; Adrian as CEO and Tim as Chief Operating Officer. We also appointed a number of other people in a mix of full-time and part-roles roles, including a ticketing team and Mike Chenery as Ground Safety Officer.

It remains the case that no one person or group has a controlling interest in the club. We run as a business, but any profits, a rarity for football clubs at our level, go back into the club. We want to be sustainable. At the end of the day, the only constant of any club is its supporters.

There was also a change within the club’s Youth & Community Foundation, where Bobby Childs took over as Head of the Foundation. Bobby’s previous role as head of the club’s medical and physiotherapy team was taken on by All Vogelzang, who rejoined us from Wycombe Wanderers FC.

Our colts’ football and girls’ football from Wildcats through to our reserve team is supported by is supported through our Youth & Community Foundation, who also support our disability and walking football sections.

ENVIRONMENTAL

During the season the EFL launched a Green Clubs programme that we were pleased to sign up to. In the initial survey of club initiatives we scored 46 points, against a target of 76 to reach the ‘pass mark’ to be awarded Green Club status. Only one EFL club was certified during 2022/23.

We have put in place an improvement programme designed to help us reach the pass mark and this includes initiatives such as:

• Adopting a formal set of environmental objectives

• Putting in place an environmental management system aligned to the principles of ISO:14001

• Monthly energy reporting to the board

We were also delighted that one of our supporters, Liam McSherry, volunteered to join our sustainability team, led by Dave Farebrother, and he has been instrumental in introducing several new ideas.

Climate Fresks

The Fresk is an exciting new tool developed in France for helping to raise awareness and understanding about the causes and interlinked effects and consequences of Climate Change. It is an interactive ‘game’ format rather than a lecture and is usually very well received by delegates. Over one million people worldwide have attended a Fresk. Our in-house Sustainability Lead, who is a Chartered Environmentalist, delivered a Fresk in April attended by our CEO, our Head of Foundation and a representative from a local school’s academy.

Vape Recycling

Vaping was introduced as a way of discouraging people from smoking, but one of the consequences has been an increase in waste. We have introduced three collection points in the ground that allow spectators to dispose of vapes safely and we send the waste for recycling.

Human Forest

Transport represents one of the biggest contributions to the UK’s carbon emissions. E-bikes have quickly become a popular alternative for travelling about town, but their effectiveness does depend on the number of locations where they can be collected or dropped-off. The VBS Community Stadium has partnered with Human Forest to become a hub for their e-bikes.

Green Football Weekend

As part of our build up to the EFL’s Green Football Weekend our Sustainability Lead spoke at three local schools, all part of the Leo Academy, about sustainability, climate and the Green Weekend. Event. Over 500 pupils aged between 5 and 12 attended the three assemblies and each school ran a sustainabilitythemed poster competition, with around 20 pupils and teachers from each school invited to watch one our home league matches.

SOCIAL

The installation of a new grass pitch to replace our much-loved 3G surface changed the way in which we had to use the stadium and also presented challenges for all of our teams. Although the technology we chose allows for greater density of use than a traditional grass pitch it cannot come close to the wear and tear that is endured by a 3G surface, this meant finding alternative venues for all of our junior teams for both training and matches. We were delighted to be able to secure the David Weir Stadium for the 2022/23 season for our Women’s Reserve and Development teams and we also played a number of Women’s First Team matches at South Park FC, and we thank them enormously for their help.

Football provides us with a key to open doors to engage and communicate with many sections of the local community, especially school children. Would you rather learn about diet and nutrition from a teacher or professional footballers?

Some of the schemes we have in place include:

• Christmas presents delivered to children who would be spending the holiday period in local hospitals.

• Annual partnerships with local charities to help raise their profile within the community and to partner in fund-raising activities.

• Support through the EFL Trust of Sutton Community Farm.

ECONOMIC

We enjoyed an excellent first season in the EFL, culminating in a trip to Wembley for the Papa Johns Trophy Final and that cup run was obviously a welcome and unexpected bonus in terms of finances.

We didn’t enjoy that level of cup success in the 2022/23 season but no club can budget for windfalls such as cup runs or player sales, a sustainable model depends developing more reliable income streams, and so we were delighted to see our average home attendance increase by around 5.7% to 3265, the highest level in our history. Our commercial team works very hard to develop new commercial relationships and were rewarded by a naming-rights deal with innovative local medical firm Echo Laser, who have lent their name to the ‘away’ stand at the Collingwood Road end of the stadium.

Completing the away end in terms of both covered seating and standing was a significant achievement for us, helping to provide suitable accommodation to welcome large numbers of away supporters. Finishing the open “Tardis Terrace” alongside the matchday control room was also important, as it has the flexibility to also be devoted to away supporters for some fixtures, safely maximizing our attendances.

Our commercial team also developed an arrangement with local brewers Signal, who have helped us to develop home and away fans’ zones that provide improved food and drink offerings for all spectators.

2022/23

For a long time the men’s first team looked set to challenge for the end of season play-offs, or even automatic promotion, but a loss of form in the new year saw the team tail off and finish in a comfortable mid-table position. There was disappointment in the FA Cup with a shock defeat at home to old non-League rivals Farnborough Town.

Our Academy team did well on the field but even better off it, earning elevation to the much coveted EFL Category 3 status. This is not just about the prestige, Cat 3 status brings with it benefits in terms of added security for the club and players down to the age of 9. We are able to attract better players and if they are talent-spotted before the age of 18 and move on to a bigger club then the club is automatically eligible for compensation based on the time and resources devoted to player development.

There was a change of leadership in the Academy during the season with former player Jimmy Dack taking over as Head in succession to Marvin Williams.

The Sutton United Pan Disability Section enjoyed another great season. With our squad of 50 adults with disabilities we continue to offer amazing opportunities. Last season saw the set up of a brand new league to address a shortage of competition for middle and the lower ability levels of disability football. Sutton United Disability created the Friendship League with our friends and through friendships gained over the years from disability football.

Our Head of Disability Football, Steve King, was one of three shortlisted nominees for the London Sports Awards 2023 Volunteer of the Year, in recognition of his work in providing life-changing football opportunities for disabled footballers. This started with 4 teams Sutton, Fulham Foundation, Southwark Stars and Arsenal Foundation and it has proved very popular, and we have already have requests from Chelsea Foundation, Woking and Surrey CP to join in 2023/24.

Our elite squad became the FA South East Disability Cup winners for the first time, and with 9 County FAs entering teams this was an amazing achievement. With support from the Sutton United Foundation, we also took 2 teams to Northern Ireland to compete in the Irish FA George Best Community Cup in June 2023, again enjoying great success and friendship. We were really pleased when Aaron Lucas was chosen for the

England cerebral palsy team that finished as runnersup in the 2023 European championships. Our Sutton United colts and girls sections continue to benefit from the higher profile the club enjoys as a member of the EFL. Scarcely a day passes without an enquiry via our club email address. We fielded twentyfive teams for boys aged 7 to 16, including those under our academy structure and also non-elite football. We also ran 7 teams for girls aged 7 to 16.

All of our coaches are trained to a minimum of FA Level 1, and all have been DBS checked, emergency first aid trained and Safeguarding trained. Every season we hold open trials locally, and in recent years we have seen over 1,000 children attend from all over the borough.

Our teams enjoyed league and cup success, notably our under-15 boys doing the double, and, as a part of our One Club ethos, our young teams act as ball girls/boys for the first team for all home matches.

We run Weetabix Wildcats sessions for girls aged 6 to 11 every Monday evening, with girls receiving their first session free of charge. The Wildcats provide noncompetitive football for girls who want to give the sport a try or play with others of their own age, but most of all it’s about having fun and meeting new friends.

We also run walking football sessions for the over-55s, held weekly at the Goals Soccer Centre in North Cheam. The game does what it says on the tin, the same rules as normal football but played at walking pace and no heading or bone-crunching tackles allowed. It’s a great way to socialise but also to exercise in a fun way.

We must express our thanks to all of the managers, coaches and administrators who supported all of our teams outside of the senior men’s teams, they are all volunteers and without them none of the teams would even exist. Crucially, the club met the FA Charter Standard and places welfare and safeguarding at the top of its list of priorities. All of the coaches receive appropriate training on top of their coaching qualifications. Although the men’s first team is naturally the main focus of the club, being able to provide opportunities to enjoy support and all of the health benefits that this brings for several hundred non-elite players is a very important part of the club.

After the enforced Covid absence we were also pleased to see the return of walking football for players who are still young at heart.

CLUB MASCOT

JENNY THE GIRAFFE

My name is Jenny, and I have been described as the biggest celebrity in Sutton (sorry Mr Tim Vine!). I don’t know about that, but I am certainly the tallest.

A highlight of the year was taking part in the New Year’s Day Parade through the streets of London, and I really enjoyed helping all the humans celebrate the club’s 125h anniversary in March. It wasn’t so much fun clearing up all the rubbish people often leave behind though, as part of the EFL’s Green Weekend

I had great fun visiting the Monkey Puzzle Day Nursery in April, taking part alongside the children in an Easter Egg hunt. That was a lot less scary than my previous day out, walking across the hot coals in a firewalk in support of our adopted charity, Maggie’s Cancer Care.

You don’t often meet Stormtroopers in Banstead, but I made an unlikely new friend when we turned on the Christmas lights, before I took part a few days later in the annual Santa Dash – as usual I didn’t win.

I’m not only involved on match days of course. I get lots of invitations to go fêtes and school fairs and I really love meeting all of the teachers and children.

Lots of Love

Jenny

Jenny is always pleased to be invited to attend events around the borough and will try to go to as many as she can.

THE VBS COMMUNITY STADIUM

Having completed works at the away end of the stadium, our next challenge is to meet the EFL requirement for a minimum of 2,000 seats, to be achieved in 2024.

This work has involved lengthy, careful consideration as we want to not only provide the most cost effective solution but to deliver the project without impacting on our ongoing ability to stage matches. As part of the enabling works for this it was decided not to continue with the temporary stand in the north-west corner of the ground for the 2023/24 season and also to dismantle the Goodliffe Stand, which was the raised area used to accommodate spectators using wheelchairs. Instead, wheelchairs are now accommodated in a covered, pitchside facility although it is hoped to incorporate something more permanent into the new seating project.

SUTTON UNITED YOUTH & COMMUNITY FOUNDATION

Our Foundation was established and registered as a charity in 2018 and is administered by a Board of Trustees. During the year Bobby Childs, the club’s former team physiotherapist, took over as Head of Foundation.

We organised a number of events where boys and girls could come down and enjoy a week of football matches and coaching together while giving their families a well-earned rest!

We held a range of events/initiatives including:

• An EFL & eBay event for SUFC Girls U15s, resulting in sponsorship of £2k.

• Brookfield School won our U11 EFL Kids’ Cup event, for which the men’s 1st team players provided a coaching session. Brookfield went on to a regional event where they unluckily lost in the final.

• Carshalton Girls U12s won our Girls Competition and went on to take part in the regional event of the Girls Utilita Cup in Northampton.

• Men’s 1st Team Players attended the Holiday & Food Programme to help with the coaching during the Easter Holidays.

• 1st team players also attended Coaching session at Cheam Park Farm.

• We were pleased to take part in the national Little Box of Books initiative: this saw books about diverse family make-ups delivered to Leo Academy schools by our 1st team players with an event for 90 children at the club to present them with books and followed by a stadium tour.

• Our Foundation also purchased and delivered a set of Little Box of Books with our players visiting and signing the books for patients in the Oaks Children’s Ward. https://www.suttonunited.net/news/2023/april/s utton-united-supports-little-box-of-books-at-royalmarsden-hospital/

• We ran a Literacy Day at the club, for 90 children including 3 events; Poetry about Scoring a Goal, Shadow art showing footballers and Word making and archery

• We spoke at 3 school assemblies, reaching over 500 pupils, as part of Green Football Weekend.

• We organised a Show Racism the Red Card event with over 100 local school children, with 1st team players attending to take part in the discussion.

• In April we participated in Amnesty’s Football Welcomes campaign to welcome around 160 refugees and migrants to our stadium for our

match against Stockport County. We are just one of the very many clubs across the football pyramid and grassroots football to be participating in this initiative. Bobby Childs, head of the Sutton United Foundation, said: ''We are pleased to be supporting Amnesty’s Football Welcomes. The work of the football club in the local Community is about bringing people together and there’s not much that can compare to football in providing a common language in which people can communicate.

• Feeling connected to your local community is important for so many of us, I can only imagine how much more important it is if you’ve had to flee your home and leave everything behind. We just want to say to anyone in Sutton and the surrounding Boroughs who has come here as a migrant or refugee seeking asylum - you are and always will be welcome here.''

• https://www.suttonunited.net/news/2023/april/u s-join-amnestys-football-welcomes-campaign-towelcome-refugees/

EFL WEEK OF ACTION

In January this year a number of our players and management took part in activities as part of the 2023 EFL Week of Action, highlighting the work done by EFL clubs in their communities.

On the Monday evening the week kicked off at Weetabix Wildcats, where girls aged 5-11 enjoyed their football at Goals, Cheam, and were joined by 1st teamers Tope Fadahunsi, Aaron Pierre and Matt Ridley. On Wednesday morning we had a good turnout on a cold morning for walking football, and after a session at Goals the players came to the stadium for lunch and a ground tour, and were joined by players Matt Kerbey and Roman Charles-Cook.

On Thursday evening manager Matt Gray was on hand for a joint training session for our Under 15 and Under 16 girls' teams at Sutton High School. About sixty children from Cheam Fields Primary School were given a tour of the VBS on the Friday and afterwards had a question and answer session with first teamers Luke Gambin, Louis John, Rob Milsom and Donovan Wilson, supervised by Head of Foundation Bobby Childs, before lining up to get the players' autographs.

These events would not be possible without the efforts of all our coaches, who give up their time throughout the week to make the sessions happen, and to whom we are very grateful.

CHARITY PARTNERSHIPS

It has long been our practice as a club to work with a local charity as our appointed ‘Charity Partner of the Year’. We always work with a small local charity as we believe that is where we can help to make the greatest difference, using our own profile as leverage to raise awareness of the charity.

Our partner for 2022/23 was Maggie’s Cancer Care

Our recent charity partners have been:

2017/18 Sutton SCILL Centre

2018/19 St Raphael’s Hospice

2019/20 St Raphael’s Hospice

2019/20 Sutton Night Watch

2021/21 St Helier & Surrey Kidney Patients Association

2021/22 Play Wise

2022/23 Maggie’s Cancer Care

Our charity partners for 2023/24 will be The Children’s Trust, the UK's leading charity for children with brain injury

In 2021 88 players participated in our annual Golf Day at Pyrford Golf Club and raised £875 for our Foundation. In 2019 the event took place at Banstead Golf Club and we raised £1,100 for the St Helier & Surrey Kidney Patients Association.

FAIRNESS, INCLUSION & RESPECT

At Sutton United we want to treat everybody equally, irrespective of their gender, age, backgrounds or beliefs.

We are very proud of the reputation we have as a friendly, welcoming club and were really pleased to receive kind messages from away supporters during the season, even more than we did in our first season as a Football League club.

Some of our supporters formed a new, official Pride section and their rainbow flag was proudly on display at grounds up and down the country. You can follow Sutton United Pride on Twitter here https://twitter.com/suttonutdpride Of course, the team also wore rainbow laces as part of the wider campaign.

For the 2023-24 season we will be introducing a dedicated text number that will allow spectators to anonymously report any instances at The Lane on matchdays of behaviour that is discriminatory in any way.

Sarah Aitchison is our Her Game Too Ambassador and is a constant source of enthusiasm to promote equality on and off the pitch. Sarah is also becoming our club EDI Champion and one of her first achievements will be the club’s adoption of the principles behind the Football Leadership Diversity Code and we expect the FA to grant us that status during the coming season.

Muslim Athlete Pledge

In August 2022 we were pleased to sign the Muslim Athlete Pledge which, amongst other things, saw us open our new multi-faith prayer room which is open to all players and spectators. It is the beginning of a journey to become fully accredited with the Nujum Sports Athlete Charter which will demonstrate our commitment to zero tolerance towards any form of discrimination.

The opening of the prayer room was attended by the Mayor of Sutton, Councillor Trish Fivey, along with former U’s defender Anwar Uddin, in his capacity as Campaigns Manager for Fans for Diversity and a Nujum Ambassador, and who was awarded an MBE for services to football in this year's Birthday Honours List. Also present were first team player Kwame Thomas and the Rev. Bethany Lewis, Team Vicar of St. Alban's Sutton and vicar of St John's CofE and Methodist Church.

Club Director Martin Copus said: ''Signing the pledge is a positive step for Sutton United, and integral to our work supporting our players in all respects. By understanding and appreciating their faith and cultural needs, we are further reinforcing the club's strong community ethos - as well as ensuring our players and fans, and those visiting our club, feel valued and appreciated”.

https://www.suttonunited.net/news/2022/august2/su tton-united-sign-muslim-athlete-pledge-and-openmulti-faith-prayer-room/

HEALTH & SAFETY

Boardroom responsibility for matters of Health & Safety lies with Chief Operating Officer Tim Allison.

Expert support is provided by Kevin Thackeray, a well qualified and experienced H&S manager, and by our Ground Safety Officer Mike Chenery. We work closely with the Sports Ground Safety Authority and with experts at London Borough of Sutton to ensure we implement high standards both on match days and more generally.

The HR Company Ltd is appointed as our external H&S advisers to the club, and they review all of our policies and procedures.

Ahead of every match we undertake a walk round of the stadium to check for hazards that need rectifying. On match days the stewarding team perform a further series of checks before the Ground Safety Officer gives the OK for the gates to be opened.

The governance section of our website (www.suttonunited.net) has links to our various policies in relation to:

• Equal Opportunities

• Respect

• Unacceptable Behaviour

• Safeguarding

• Health & Safety

This is also where anyone can find our Customer Charter.

Health & Safety Statistics

HEALTH & SAFETYSTATISTICS

Matchdays

THE BUSINESS CLUB

The Business Club has been in place for around ten years. Local firms pay an annual sponsorship fee to join and receive benefits in terms of advertising and match tickets, but principally become part of a network of local companies that also get the opportunity to attend or even to present at or host monthly seminars.

We see the Business Club as a modern twist on the established idea of a chamber of commerce that complements that concept, with a focus on bringing local businesses together and raising awareness of the key issues of the day.

The U’s Business App.

Last year we launched our community-based "U's Business" App, designed to provide a forum and meeting place for the various organisations we interact with - from our Business Club to shareholders, sponsors, local partners, suppliers, charities and, of course, the local authority.

In other words, it connects the Club's extended community. We don't make a charge to our partner organisations, instead we set out to add mobile technology to our communications with the business community we are part of. "U's Business" App includes write-ups and contact details of all our community partners, regular news updates, details of matches and other events at Gander Green Lane, and a chat function (like WhatsApp) enabling easy personal introductions and interaction.

So far, the app has had over 120 downloads, all by U'srelated local businesses and organisations, and the app has been used well over 10,000 times already. Onwards into year 2 and beyond!

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS

In October 2021 the EFL announced the launch of its new Green Clubs scheme, aimed at all 72 member clubs and designed to improve the levels of sustainability across all three divisions.

Sutton United was happy to sign up to the scheme and with a number of initiatives already in place achieved an initial score in the survey of 46 marks, this was one of the better scores but still a long way short of the level of 76 required to accredited under the scheme. Only one club, Forest Green Rovers, was initially accredited.

This did have the bonus for us though of an extra volunteer to join our in-house, supporter Liam McSherry runs an environmental marketing consultancy and became a vital cog in our machine.

One of Liam’s first acts was to guide the club to become a registered hub for E-Bikes with Human Forest. We also started to develop an environmental management system aligned to the principles of ISO:14001

In April 2023 we held a climate awareness training session (www.climatefresk.org), a programme that has already seen more than one million people worldwide attend the training. Our session was delivered inhouse by Dave Farebrother, who is Chartered Environmentalist and is also a trained Fresk facilitator, and was attended by our CEO, our Head of Foundation and the sustainability lead for one of our local education partners. The invitation had also been extended to the FA, the EFL and Sky TV.

Quantifying Our Environmental Impacts

We received a number of plaudits for the scope of our carbon reporting in our 2021/22 CSR Report. It is not easy to understand or to quantify Scope 3 carbon emissions, i.e. those associated with indirect use of fossil fuels, and the impacts of spectators travelling to games up and down the country is frequently overlooked.

In compiling our 22/23 emissions report we have used the same methodology, assumptions and conversion factors as for 21/22. This is important, as although the levels of uncertainty in quantifying Scope 3 emissions can be large, this approach should still give a good impression of trends. Are we getting better ?

NB- 21/22water

NB - We have improved our data capture for 2022/23, combined with recruiting additional support staff this has resulted in the significant increase in carbon emissions for non-group travel

Bar sales were up as a consequence of increased attendances and opening of fans' zones pre-match

Split of Contributions to Carbon Footprint

Total project costs for 22/23 were approximately 28% lower than in 2021/22, leading to a similar reduction in carbon as the quantification is spend-based calculation. There was also a significant reduction in the amount of concrete used, which has a large level of embodied carbon.

Scope 3 emissions dominate Scope 1 and 2 in almost all industries and football is no different. This is why it is so important to not only address the direct emissions over which we have control, but also the emissions that derive from the goods and services that we procure. We will aim to develop a procurement policy that addresses this alongside a range of other sustainability indicators

This chart looks at the breakdown of emissions without the contribution from development works.

Spectator Travel

The impacts of spectator travel as a major contribution to the carbon emissions of sport are still widely, and conveniently overlooked. Football is not alone in this, but FIFA planning to stage a World Cup tournament across six countries in the three continents sends a message at odds with their proclamations around sustainability.

We therefore continue to report our estimates of carbon emissions associated with fan travel, even though they are beyond our control. We have used the same methodology and conversion factors as large year, so although we cannot claim the numbers are necessarily accurate they should be helpful in establishing trends.

Note 1 The carbon figure for awaygames in 2022/23 is lower than the previous year largelybecause 2021/22 included significant extra journeys to awaycup ties.

Note 2 The carbon figure for awaysupporters visiting Sutton in 2022/23 is higher than the previous year because the attendances were higher.

Note 3 The absolute total for 21/22 was 667,637 kg but that included 55,477 for 15,000 Sutton fans travelling to the EFL TrophyFinal at WembleyStadium and has been excluded here for a more like for like comparison.