Is that “green”? 24,000 square meters of artificial turf were laid in Berlin fan zones for the European Championships.
Photo: imago/Jürgen Heinrich
Iris Spranger talks about colorful drawings from Berlin kindergartens that she is currently receiving more often. On Friday, the Senator for Interior Affairs and Sport sat in the fan zone at the Brandenburg Gate and took stock of the European Football Championship in the capital at half-time. She looks at the artificial turf – and praises the “sustainability” of the tournament. Half a million people have already walked across the synthetic green. “It still looks like new,” says Spranger. Where the artificial turf will later be located can be seen in the children’s drawings: daycare centers, football fields, the correctional facility – many have applied for subsequent use.
Good idea, no action
The organizers, the DFB and UEFA have promised “the most sustainable European Championship of all time”. If you look closely, not everything that glitters is “green”. “Do you have a cup,” asks a Portuguese colleague in the media cafe at the Frankfurt stadium. “No,” answers the young woman behind the counter. “Just this,” she says, pointing to three huge stacks of paper cups. The Portuguese raises his eyebrows, but doesn’t think about it for long: “Ok, a coffee, please.” Many colleagues can’t do anything without caffeine, maybe it’s a journalist’s illness, which I also suffer from. I get my coffee in a cup in the Berlin Olympic Stadium. All water tanks are empty. Unfortunately, the good idea of taking a plastic bottle once and then refilling it again and again cannot be implemented.
Roberta had a bad feeling three years ago. You can hardly have better conditions than her as a speaker for sustainability management. Roberta is an economist and the topic of her thesis was CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility, i.e. the voluntary contribution of business to sustainable development that goes beyond legal requirements. The diploma was followed by a master’s degree in sustainability and quality management. She is currently sitting in a corner bar in Berlin. Because the broadcast European Championship game is not that exciting, Roberta can talk about her application for the position as a speaker for the state of Berlin for the European Football Championship. Here again, raised eyebrows of doubt. The only task that was given at the interview in June 2021 could also have been solved by a first-year student. The demands are certainly not ambitious. “Anyone who gives themselves the label ‘sustainable’ is also measured by it,” she says and asks: “How can a tournament to which hundreds of thousands of fans are flown in be sustainable?” And: “Compensation cannot turn something good into something good.”
Big sales, small contribution
Not only fans are flying, but also officials and national teams. Instead of a two-hour bus ride, the Turkish entourage preferred to charter a plane to get to the group game in Hamburg. Is it necessary to produce 24,000 square meters of artificial turf and clean it daily to make the fan zone in Berlin look pretty? A popular part of the European Championship’s sustainability concept is UEFA’s compensation system. The association is donating seven million euros for climate-friendly measures in German football. That’s 25 euros per unavoidable ton of CO2 at this EM, but in climate terms it costs around 80 euros. UEFA prefers to use its EM turnover of 2.4 billion euros differently.
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