Focus of work
During the football season, millions of supporters travel weekly to stadiums around the UK to support their team. These journeys are mostly taken by car, with estimated emissions of over 37,000 tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent). This project by Pledgeball leverages the cultural influence and community strength of football to shift fan travel behaviours away from private car use and towards sustainable transport. The campaign focuses on engaging supporters through the clubs they care about, enabling and normalising matchday journeys via public transport, walking and cycling.
Through a combination of roadshows, fan-led storytelling, club partnerships, digital media and behavioural nudges, Pledgeball creates engaging interventions that are rooted in lived experience. Fans are invited not only to participate but to lead – making travel choices visible and meaningful to their communities.
By integrating club communications, transport providers and grassroots insights, this project will reshape the narrative around car dependency, build momentum for modal shift and create a replicable, scalable framework for using sport to drive low-carbon behaviour change.
Impact
This project will deliver a measurable reduction in matchday car use while establishing a scalable model for sport-led transport behaviour change. By engaging fans through in-person and digital interventions, it will normalise low-carbon travel choices across diverse football communities. Supporters will become visible advocates for sustainable transport, inspiring modal shift through relatable storytelling and messaging.
The campaign will generate valuable insights into fan behaviour, which will be shared with clubs, transport providers and policy makers to support targeted investment and infrastructure improvements. As a result, Pledgeball: Our Route to Kick Off will catalyse systemic change in how supporters travel, proving the power of football to influence community-wide behaviours and contribute to national climate goals. Through fan roadshows, digital pledging, and partnerships with transport operators, the campaign will demonstrate how deeply rooted cultural spaces can drive collective action on emissions and access — ultimately building a fan-led movement for greener travel that extends beyond matchdays and across the country.