Want to Save the Environment? Don’t go to the Game, Watch Sport on your iPad

The Carbon Trust has released data that shows that watching sport on smartphones and tablet devices is actually good for the environment. Discovering that watching a match via the internet, rather than on the television, could reduce the associated carbon emissions by up to eight times.

BusinessGreen writes that both Sky and BT offer apps that allow their users to view live television on personal devices, and that in the UK alone 27% of smartphone owners and 63% of tablet owners use their devices to watch television.

Watching television on tablets and smartphones is becoming more popular. (SMH)

But whilst watching television on personal devices via the internet can have a positive impact on the environment, using 3G or 4G mobile data services can actually increase the carbon emissions by as much as 10 times. And then it might a shock to know that going to the games is worst of all, particularly away games, due to the travel and the running costs of the stadium, and the services offered to fans.

Even watching sport at home, or in the pub, on the television is more environmentally friendly, although the Carbon Trust has warned that the type of television used has a massive impact on the emissions produced; LED TVs are the most energy efficient, followed by LCD TVs, and then plasma TVs. In fact using a plasma TV could result in more than 30% higher emissions over the entire lifetime of the screen when compared with an LED TV.

Related article: Saving the Environment: A Job for Everyone, or Just Developed Nations?

The Community Shield match to be played on Sunday, is a match held every year between the FA Cup winners and the Premier League winners. This year will see Wigan Athletic take on Manchester United, and the Carbon Trust has calculated that a total of 5,160 tonnes of CO2 will be emitted as a result of the match, with 5,000 tonnes produced by the fans travelling to the game. This is the same amount of carbon produced by around 1,000 average UK households over an entire year.

Ex-Manchester United Right-Back, Gary Neville, is a strong supporter of reducing football’s impact on the environment. He explained that “when it comes to cutting your own carbon bootprint, it is all about understanding your impact and making sensible choices to reduce it. The best thing fans can do is share the experience of watching a match, either by watching the game with each other, or travelling together to the stadium.”

Michael Rea, the chief operating officer at the Carbon Trust said that “the FA, Manchester United, Newcastle United, and Bolton Wanderers have all been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard, as have both Sky and BT. Our work helping teams, broadcasters and the telecoms industry to continuously reduce their environmental impact will in turn help to reduce the impacts of fans when they are watching football.”

By. James Burgess of Oilprice.com