When the away team runs out onto the football pitch, few of us will give any thought to how they got there. Yet these days, they are more likely to have flown to their away fixture than travelled by coach. That means that while you are working hard to change to electric vehicles and plant on your site, as part of the push for net zero by 2050, Premier League clubs are happily flying about the country, taking flights as short as 27minutes to their next game.

What’s the problem?

Travelling in an environmentally friendly way isn’t that hard. Many of Think Hire’s customers have installed electric vehicle charging points, which are powered by hybrid generator hire. This allows you to operate your vehicles using solar power, significantly reducing CO2 emissions. Compare that to a short haul flight, where emissions per kilometre are the highest for any form of transport, and you can see why clubs taking small flights is a big problem.

The BBC investigates

A BBC report, published this week, found that for the 100 matches played between 19th January and 19th March, the away team travelled by plane for 81 of them. To make matters worse, most of these flights were very short, which is by far the most polluting kind of flying. The shortest flight was 27minutes and the longest just over an hour, with an average of just 42minutes. While clubs claim this is to protect player welfare, critics point out that modern coaches are just as comfortable, and that travelling this way would often be almost as quick.

Setting a bad example

Some fear that the impact of these short haul flights is even worse, because the clubs are setting a bad example that this is an acceptable practice, leading other teams, and other industries, to follow suit. As Dale Vince, Chairman of sustainable football club Forest Green, explained: "The carbon impact is one thing… I think the bigger impact is the emotional one, the intellectual one, you've got Premier League teams setting a very bad example for the rest of the country”.  

Setting a better example

With Think Hire, your company can set a much better example than the Premier League clubs. By utilising hybrid generator hire to power your electric vehicles, you can show your clients, and the wider public that there is a viable alternative to carbon-heavy transport. Think Hire can help you to create a sustainable, environmentally friendly site, powered by hybrid generator hire, that will significantly reduce your CO2 emissions. Better still, if you appoint Think Hire as your renewable energy partner, we guarantee to reduce your operating costs too.

We’re running out of time

A second report out this week emphasises why this issue is so urgent. The news from the COP27 UN climate summit is that we are running out of time to change how we do things. The actions we take in the next decade could resonate for thousands of years. Get it right, through things like hybrid power hire, and we can hold the global temperature rise at or around 1.5°C. But if we exceed this, by carelessly flying to football matches for the sheer convenience of it, then problems like glacial melting and climate change could become irreversible.

You CAN make a difference

It’s possible that fan pressure could make Premier League clubs change the way they operate, but it’s highly unlikely. But you can start making a difference right now with how you operate your site. Think Hire hybrid generator hire is the first step towards a more sustainable site. It might not feel like much, but as the football clubs have shown, individual decisions can quickly add up to a big impact, with either a positive or negative effect on climate change. It’s down to you to decide what effect you want your site to have.

To find out more about hybrid generator hire, and how Think Hire can help you to be more sustainable, complete the contact form today, or call us directly on 0330 133 2222.