Environmental sustainability in rugby

Academics at Cardiff University have kicked off new research about sustainability in sport by seeking the views of Dragons RFC supporters.

Fans who attended home games last season and the recent home match against the Ospreys have been asked to complete an online survey about their transport choices.

The interdisciplinary project will also involve stakeholder workshops with external partners to help researchers and Dragons RFC better understand the impact of the club’s work to improve sustainability.

Dr Andrea Collins of Cardiff University’s School of Geography and Planning, said: “With innovative sustainability strategies at the heart of their ‘Eco-campaign’, Dragons RFC is leading rugby’s charge to reduce the carbon footprint of the sport, encouraging supporters to join them in their efforts to drive positive environmental change.”

Our research will enable Dragons RFC to measure supporters’ travel choices, such as whether they have switched to more sustainable travel like public transport, or active travel such as walking or cycling, as well as understanding the local challenges supporters face when travelling on match days.”

Professor Nicole Koenig-Lewis of Cardiff Business School said: “This important baseline information will ultimately help us investigate the extent to which the Dragons’ efforts are translating into collective action and encouraging sustainable behaviour changes of supporters, while also supporting the club in the design of environmental sustainability initiatives and communications.”

In 2023, Dragons announced a new partnership with Pledgeball, sending a strong signal to the wider rugby community and supporters about the importance of ambitious and inclusive action to protect where they play.

With a strong commitment to environmental responsibility, Dragons RFC together with the support of Pledgeball has implemented a number of initiatives with local businesses and charities including Stagecoach South Wales, Newport Transport, Transport for Wales and Momentwm, aimed at reducing the environmental impact of supporter travel to matches and encouraging supporters to pledge to take collective action on climate change.

Rhys Blumberg, CEO at Dragons RFC, said: “Our award-winning Eco Dragons project was at the forefront of our match days last season, and therefore we are naturally delighted to continue that work alongside Cardiff University and Pledgeball.

“This partnership and the research being undertaken about sustainability in sport will enable us to drive change and continue to make key decisions that will enhance our work in this key area.”

Katie Cross, CEO of Pledgeball said: “This is a really exciting next step in the partnership between Dragons and Pledgeball. As a research-backed charity that rallies the sports community to take action to ‘Protect Where We Play’ by making choices that reduce our environmental impacts but also making it known that we want action on climate change, we are delighted to be part of this project.

“Dragons fans have already shown incredible dedication and are pioneers in this. This project takes the partnership to the next level by supporting the development of a tool that can potentially be widely applied whilst also informing strategy to further increase impact.”

This knowledge exchange project has been made possible thanks to funding from Cardiff University’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Impact Acceleration Account (IAA).