Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GREENFOOT (GReen power and Energy Efficiency iNvestments community-Financed for fOOTball buildings)
Reporting period: 2020-09-01 to 2022-02-28
The central goal of GREENFOOT is to support and foster the transition to a low-carbon energy system by packaging individual participation and financing of the energy transition in the fun, friendly, and well-known context that is European professional football.
To accomplish this goal, GREENFOOT will develop and implement a community-based financing scheme for renovating stadiums, practice facilities, and related buildings (e.g. team headquarters, fitness centres) with energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RES) measures.
The GREENFOOT concept is to finance sports building EE renovations and RES installations with crowdfunding schemes that propel Europeans to become active participants in the energy transition through their love of sports and their favourite teams. GREENFOOT markets creative investment packages and associated financial contracts that entice sports fans and community members to invest in the energy transition, and allow for easy replication of the GREENFOOT concept through contract/marketing templates.
The GREENFOOT concept applies to sports-related buildings of all types and beyond and will be demonstrated on four participating football buildings during the project runtime from major international football clubs (French Federation, Ireland Assoc., Azerbaijan Assoc. and MALMÖ FF).
The GREENFOOT project maintains a hat trick of overall objectives, referred to as “goals”:
GOAL I is to increase active citizen participation in the EU energy transition through creative investment options that involve citizens with their favourite sports teams.
GOAL II is to improve access to financing that owners and operators of sports buildings have available to fund EE renovations and the installation of RES.
GOAL III is to contribute a substantial reduction in fossil-fuel based energy use and related greenhouse gas emissions in sports buildings by reducing their energy use and increasing their renewable production.
To accomplish this goal, GREENFOOT will develop and implement a community-based financing scheme for renovating stadiums, practice facilities, and related buildings (e.g. team headquarters, fitness centres) with energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RES) measures.
The GREENFOOT concept is to finance sports building EE renovations and RES installations with crowdfunding schemes that propel Europeans to become active participants in the energy transition through their love of sports and their favourite teams. GREENFOOT markets creative investment packages and associated financial contracts that entice sports fans and community members to invest in the energy transition, and allow for easy replication of the GREENFOOT concept through contract/marketing templates.
The GREENFOOT concept applies to sports-related buildings of all types and beyond and will be demonstrated on four participating football buildings during the project runtime from major international football clubs (French Federation, Ireland Assoc., Azerbaijan Assoc. and MALMÖ FF).
The GREENFOOT project maintains a hat trick of overall objectives, referred to as “goals”:
GOAL I is to increase active citizen participation in the EU energy transition through creative investment options that involve citizens with their favourite sports teams.
GOAL II is to improve access to financing that owners and operators of sports buildings have available to fund EE renovations and the installation of RES.
GOAL III is to contribute a substantial reduction in fossil-fuel based energy use and related greenhouse gas emissions in sports buildings by reducing their energy use and increasing their renewable production.
In the first period of the project, the core objective was to establish the cornerstones of innovative community-based crowdfunding concepts. First, the project team summarised and interpreted the existing work related to community-based investments for energy or sport-related projects and showcased several specific case studies focusing on crowdfunding campaigns for stadiums and training facility construction or renovation. These steps identified major trends and assessed the potential criteria for success and failure of the GREENFOOT concept. Furthermore, a targeted literature review of the academic literature on crowdfunding participation was done. The findings point to a strong potential to mix sports fandom with energy crowdfunding initiatives to bring about a new wave of green sports brands and to increase the renovation rate of the EU sports building stock. Equity crowdfunding and crowdlending in particular have been identified as especially promising types of crowdfunding for structured energy renovations, with reward systems as a valuable alternative for smaller, more socially-oriented campaigns. Furthermore, the GREENFOOT survey, in which in total, 3,576 citizens in France, Sweden, Ireland and Azerbaijan were surveyed was done to gain a deeper understanding of how crowdfunding is perceived by the general population and which key expectations citizens have of a crowdfunding campaign. The results indicate that many people are motivated to join crowdfunding campaigns to help the environment, support the local community, and by both monetary and non-monetary rewards. Hence when drafting future crowdfunding campaigns the environmental and local community benefits should be a focal point in marketing the campaign to potential investors. Several results were documented that should be considered when drafting future crowdfunding campaigns (e.g. that free electricity for one year and a fixed reduction in their energy bill were the most popular answers of participants to the question of what kind of return they would like to receive from a crowdfunding campaign).
The other key objective of the first project period establishing engineering plans for the project’s four demonstration building sites, which are FAI Headquarters (IE); Dalga Arena (AZ); Eleda Stadion (SE); Clairefontaine training centre (FR). For this, a summary of the most suitable EE actions and RES installations, useful for the development of engineering plans was identified. For different types of football buildings, a wide range of applicable energy efficiency renovation solutions were analysed and presented in a Technical Catalogue collecting a set of suitable solutions for each building category, completed with technical features, detailed information, and analysis from the point of view of both energy savings and adaptability with crowdfunding schemes. Strengths and barriers were summarized in order to facilitate informed decision-making during the development of plans for the candidate buildings. Starting from the Technical Catalogue, four Renovation Plans were developed to identify strategies/packages for potential building renovations and assess a set of EE solutions and RES installations. Considering the actual state of the buildings and taking into account the current and future needs of the users and Football Associations, specific solutions have been developed for each of the four demonstration buildings.
The other key objective of the first project period establishing engineering plans for the project’s four demonstration building sites, which are FAI Headquarters (IE); Dalga Arena (AZ); Eleda Stadion (SE); Clairefontaine training centre (FR). For this, a summary of the most suitable EE actions and RES installations, useful for the development of engineering plans was identified. For different types of football buildings, a wide range of applicable energy efficiency renovation solutions were analysed and presented in a Technical Catalogue collecting a set of suitable solutions for each building category, completed with technical features, detailed information, and analysis from the point of view of both energy savings and adaptability with crowdfunding schemes. Strengths and barriers were summarized in order to facilitate informed decision-making during the development of plans for the candidate buildings. Starting from the Technical Catalogue, four Renovation Plans were developed to identify strategies/packages for potential building renovations and assess a set of EE solutions and RES installations. Considering the actual state of the buildings and taking into account the current and future needs of the users and Football Associations, specific solutions have been developed for each of the four demonstration buildings.
In the first 18 months of the project, the foundations for the implementation of the GREENFOOT concept have been laid. For each of GREENFOOT’s four demonstration buildings in France, Sweden, Ireland and Azerbaijan, a set of interventions have been evaluated from a technical, economic and environmental point of view in order to identify the most promising EE and RES solutions. The results provide a sufficiently accurate picture of the achievable energy performance and the economic impact of the individual measures.
The results of GREENFOOT’s market research survey, in which a novel dataset was gathered, provide the project team with a deeper understanding of the perceptions and attitudes of a representative sample of >3,500 citizens regarding crowdfunding, their willingness to participate in crowdfunding campaigns and the factors that can make a crowdfunding campaign successful.
Furthermore, the research done in the first 18 months provided an in-depth analysis of existing work related to community-based investments for energy or sport-related projects, identified major trends and assessed the potential criteria for success and failure of the GREENFOOT concept. Potential crowdfunding campaigns and their key characteristics for the demonstration sites were elaborated as well.
Building on these outcomes, the next step of the GREENFOOT project is to use the knowledge gained to implement innovative crowdfunding campaigns for GREENFOOT’s four demonstration sites. Fo this, in the next couple of months, the infrastructure needed for the crowdfunding campaigns as well as the marketing and communication strategies will be set up. The goal of GREENFOOT’s second project period is to involve as many citizens as possible in the crowdfunding campaigns.
The results of GREENFOOT’s market research survey, in which a novel dataset was gathered, provide the project team with a deeper understanding of the perceptions and attitudes of a representative sample of >3,500 citizens regarding crowdfunding, their willingness to participate in crowdfunding campaigns and the factors that can make a crowdfunding campaign successful.
Furthermore, the research done in the first 18 months provided an in-depth analysis of existing work related to community-based investments for energy or sport-related projects, identified major trends and assessed the potential criteria for success and failure of the GREENFOOT concept. Potential crowdfunding campaigns and their key characteristics for the demonstration sites were elaborated as well.
Building on these outcomes, the next step of the GREENFOOT project is to use the knowledge gained to implement innovative crowdfunding campaigns for GREENFOOT’s four demonstration sites. Fo this, in the next couple of months, the infrastructure needed for the crowdfunding campaigns as well as the marketing and communication strategies will be set up. The goal of GREENFOOT’s second project period is to involve as many citizens as possible in the crowdfunding campaigns.