How AFC Bournemouth Is Tackling Carbon Accounting for the Beautiful Game

Overview

AFC Bournemouth, a Premier League football club, partnered with Climatise to measure, report, and reduce their environmental footprint across matchday operations, the Performance Centre, and beyond — all without a dedicated sustainability hire.

The challenge

Like all large UK organisations, AFC Bournemouth is subject to SECR requirements. But without a dedicated sustainability manager and data scattered across the stadium, Performance Centre, and administrative offices, they needed a partner to bring structure and automation to their carbon accounting.

• SECR compliance deadline with limited in-house expertise to prepare disclosures • Multi-facility operations: Vitality Stadium, Performance Centre, and offices each with distinct energy profiles • No sustainability manager — the platform needed to be intuitive for non-specialists • Growing stakeholder expectations from fans, sponsors, and the Premier League • Data from multiple energy suppliers in different formats across facilities

The solution

Climatise worked with AFC Bournemouth over four months: building their emissions baseline, setting up each facility in the platform, and training their team to run it independently.

Historical Data Capture (Aug 2023 – Jul 2024): Collected and processed historical energy, gas, and transport data to establish a comprehensive emissions baseline for FY 2023-24.

Platform Setup & Configuration (Feb – Mar 2025): Every facility mapped into Climatise with individual emission source profiles, meter configurations, and data upload workflows.

FY 2024-25 Data Collection (Aug 2024 – Jul 2025): Second full year of emissions data collected in real time — Scope 1 (gas, fleet), Scope 2 (electricity), and business travel.

Platform Training & Ownership (In Progress): Club staff being trained to independently upload data, run reports, and monitor their footprint without a dedicated sustainability hire.

Impact

• SECR compliant reports generated • 2 years of emissions baselined • 3 facilities tracked independently • 642 solar panels at the Performance Centre quantified

What they said

"Carbon reporting was taking up real time from our finance team. We needed to save time, meet our requirements for annual filings and audit, and do it properly. Climatise solved that, but what surprised us was how much more it opened up. All the good things we were already doing at Bournemouth — the solar panels, the electric mowers, the reusable cups — we couldn't quantify any of it before. Now we can, and it's become a genuine positive for the club."

— David Holiday, Finance Director, AFC Bournemouth

Sustainability in action

• 642 solar panels at the Performance Centre — 280,000 kWh annually, saving 51 tCO₂e/year • Electric groundskeeping — transitioned from petrol to electric mowers • Reusable cup programme since 2018-19, reducing single-use plastic • Vegan matchday food options for fans and players • Bike-share partnership for sustainable matchday transport • Stadium expansion (11,307 → 20,000+) incorporating modern sustainability standards