This year’s PL Inspires Challenge empowered youngsters to develop environmental social-action projects

More than 160 young people from across England and Wales joined forces this week to help tackle environmental sustainability at their football clubs, as part of this year’s Premier League Inspires Challenge.

The Challenge is one element of the Premier League Inspires programme, which clubs run on a weekly basis to support 11 to 25 year olds who are at risk of not reaching their potential as they move through the education system and early adulthood.

The PL Inspires Challenge looks to empower participants to take on a social-action project and make a difference to the world around them.

Young people were this season tasked with considering what environmental sustainability challenges football clubs might face.

Having come up with their environmental social action ideas, participants joined a virtual celebration event hosted by presenter Anita Nneka Jones, where they shared details of their activity with teams of their peers representing more than 30 clubs from across the Premier League and the English Football League.

“It’s great to see such a diverse range of projects which have been created to help drive environmental sustainability and really make a difference to the communities of these young people,” she said.

“The enthusiasm and commitment to creating a more positive planet is incredibly heartening. I hope all the participants from this year’s Premier League Inspires Challenge will continue to find ways to work together to positively impact the world we live in.”

The Premier League signed up to the UN Sports for Climate Action Framework last year and aims to reduce its own emissions by 50 per cent before 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2040, in line with the 1.5 degrees global-warming limit of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

“Environmental sustainability is of great importance to the Premier League and our clubs,” said Premier League Chief Policy and Corporate Affairs Officer, Helen MacNamara.

“In November last year, the Premier League signed up to the UN Sports for Climate Action Framework, which brings together sports organisations from all over the world to achieve climate-change goals.

“We all must play our part in this important issue, and through the Premier League Inspires Challenge young people have come up with some brilliant ideas to help build upon the great work already under way at clubs, from stadium recycling initiatives to eco-friendly kit designs and developing green spaces in their local communities.”

Premier League Inspires aims to encourage young people to develop the personal skills and positive attitudes to succeed in life.

Launched in 2019, it is supported by the Professional Footballers’ Association and The Prince’s Trust and has engaged over 435 schools and 18,000 young people to date.