Green Team Newsletter: Autumn 2025
Welcome to our Autumn update! As the leaves begin to turn and our community activities ramp up with the cooler weather, there’s still plenty happening at Bramall Lane to make our communities greener, healthier and more sustainable.
Whether you’re coming to a match, looking for volunteering opportunities, changing your habits or helping plant new green spaces – thanks for being part of it.
In this issue:
🍎 Participants aged 18-24 wanted for new sustainable cooking project
🏅Nature Based Blades wins Social Action Project of the Year!
⛏️ Green Space Regeneration Project 24th November – volunteers wanted!
🚲 New Bike Racks in Shoreham Street car park
Plus: the launch of the landmark Pitches in Peril research and what it means for the future of football (featuring our very own Tom Davies!)
🌩️ Pitches in Peril – Football for Future & Common Goal
The “Pitches in Peril” report by Football for Future and Common Goal shows that climate change is already threatening football at both elite and grassroots levels. Heat, flooding, drought and extreme weather are reducing safe training days, damaging pitches and risking participation. By 2050, two-thirds of grassroots pitches may exceed safe heat thresholds.
Read the full report here.
While it’s shocking stuff, it highlights how important the work we’re doing as a community to tackle climate change and nature loss. Thanks for taking part in any of our initiatives and doing your bit to protect football’s future.
🍎 Participants aged 18-24 wanted for new sustainable cooking project
Did you know that globally, around one-third of all food produced for human consumption is wasted? That’s why we’ve partnered with ICLEI to deliver a programme for young people (aged 18-24) who are currently Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET). .
We’re particularly keen to involve those who might help co-design the project with us, though that’s not a requirement to join.The programme could include farm visits, cooking lessons, creating recipes, and eating food at matches. While an interest in football isn’t essential, we are very keen to reach fans.
By working together to think differently about what we eat, how we source it and how we waste it, we create healthier communities, greener environments and stronger connections between sport, food and sustainability.
If you’re interested, please email flora.medford@sufc-community.co.uk and we’ll send more details.
🏅 Nature Based Blades wins Social Action Project of the Year!
We’re very proud of our Bradfield Nature Based Blades group for winning the Sheffield Youth Award for Social Action Project of the Year. Leading a bioblitz in a local primary school, they got young people excited and informed about the natural world around them. It was incredible to support such a passionate, inspiring group to raise awareness and take action to protect local wildlife.
Congratulations to all the winners and nominees!
⛏️ Green Space Regeneration Project 24th November – volunteers wanted!
On Monday 24th November, we’ll be coordinating a community volunteering event around the Bramall Lane area to plant a wildflower meadow, bulbs, and shrubs in partnership with NESST. We are inviting volunteers to help us regenerate green space, strengthen biodiversity and create a more beautiful, sustainable local environment.
As a thank you, tickets to a men’s Sheffield United match will be available for volunteers.
If you’d like to volunteer, even for just an hour, please contact flora.medford@sufc-community.co.uk.
🚲 New Bike Racks in Shoreham Street Car Park
Good news: we’ve installed new bike racks in our Shoreham Street car park to encourage sustainable travel to matches, events and community activities. If you cycle, you now have a safer place to secure your bike and show your support for greener travel.
By choosing walking, cycling, public transport or shared travel, we reduce our individual and collective footprint. It’s also a healthy choice – good for you, good for the planet, good for the club community.
Thanks for reading this Autumn edition of the Green Team Newsletter. If you have ideas, feedback or want to get more involved, please drop us a line at greenteam@sufc-community.co.uk.
Here’s to a fantastic autumn season – see you at the game, in the garden, on the bike, or in the kitchen!
Flora Medford
Sustainability Officer
Sheffield United Community Foundation