After some paucity of activity due to the Covid-19 pandemic, PlayGreen is now back to action! On 28 November, a “Green Day” was organised by PlayGreen Malta under the auspices of the Malta Football Association. The PlayGreen volunteer staff joined forces with four other organisations, namely the European Student Network; INSITE, a journalist student organisation; the Malta Surf School and the Young European Federalists, to deliver a truly sustainable event. The day sought to increase young people’s awareness about the environment through football. During the event, volunteers and members of PlayGreen Malta collected waste – mostly microplastics –, and cigarettes from the Ghajn Tuffieha Beach, one of the most beautiful beaches in Malta. To adhere to Covid-19 regulations, participants were encouraged to register as a group of six. The event was well-attended with 44 participants (all between 18-29 years of age) along with staff members of PlayGreen and the other participating organisations. After 2 hours of waste-collection, all participants enjoyed a beach football match. Green Day participants in action. Browse through the gallery by clicking on the arrows. Phil Richards, Chief Executive Officer of TAPP Water Malta also visited the event and provided some information on the use of plastic bottles for drinking water, which leads to an enormous amount of plastic waste. This is a big issue in Malta since tap water is not drinkable. Mr Richards provided the participants with a free TAPP Water Filter to encourage them to eliminate the use of plastic bottles. By using filtered tap water, it is easy to make a positive sustainable change to protect the environment. Currently, the PlayGreen consortium is working on finalising the Intellectual Outputs of the project, organising the multiplier events and the closing event. The final conference is scheduled to take place in March 2021. Learn more about PlayGreen on our website, Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram accounts.

On Monday 2nd March, #PlayGreen was featured in an article by #sportanddev. Curious? Find more about the article here!

On 29-30 October, an Erasmus+ Sport collaborative partnership project, led by Associació Ecoserveis (Spain) in partnership with the football federations of Malta, Estonia, the flemish Region of Belgium and ENGSO as partners, PlayGreen, had its second meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, hosted by the Estonian Football Association. The meeting was also attended by six international volunteers from the newly formed 'Green Team'. Thanks to an ice-breaking activity both the partners and Green Team members got to know each other and their interests. Then, the Green Team members were introduced to the aims of the project as well as and the tasks they needed to fulfill in their countries to support the mission to lower the environmental impact of sports competitions and make them greener and more sustainable. The meeting agenda also included a workshops to prepare a communication campaign to help the Green Team to bring more volunteers into the project’s cause and raise awareness about the project aims through various communication channels. Partners were also mentored and on how to engage their Green Team volunteers, who will later be tasked to develop a ‘Green Football League’ in their respective countries. On the partner’s side, a great discussion took place on how to engage and mentor volunteers. In addition, thanks to the PlayGreen tool created under the project scope,  the Green Team and project partners explored the potential impacts that sports events have on the environment, and brainstormed ideas on how to reduce such impacts. Partners also agreed on the way the mentoring would be done which will follow the same logic as the green tool and be divided in four phases: analysis, planning, implementation and evaluation. In each phase partners will develop at least one workshop and one meeting with the Green Team. this was key since it is going to be the basis of the methodology to be used and transferred to other sport organizations.The team was also given the opportunity to play walking football, one of the most popular forms of football in Estonia and get to know each other in an active and fun way. Browse through the gallery by clicking on the arrows. (Photo credits: Gertrud Alatare) The second day kicked off with a creative task. PlayGreeners developed a video to launch the Green Team communication campaign and raise awareness about the project-. The idea of the workshop was to cooperate as a team and all the members contributed to create a video between all partners. This showed all of us that having teams from different countries does enreach the project. Green Team members then had a tour around Tallinn, while partners continued their work going through each work package and discussing tasks and how to move forward with the project outputs that will benefit any sport organization willing to create sustainable sport events. The next project meeting will take place in mid 2020. Until then, the football association project partners and their Green Teams will be busy with organising their Green Football Leagues. Ecoserveis and ENGSO will also provide mentoring and support throughout the next few months, so that our Green Team members feel empowered and confident in undertaking climate actions through sports. For more information about PlayGreen and for joining our efforts to establish a network of sports organisations that are interested in environmental sustainability, visit the PlayGreen website. Authors: Niki Koutrou/Dirk Falken Edit: Mariann Bardocz-Bencsik/Cristina Bajet

For a sustainable future in sport Start here > What's new? All Videos

Voetball Flanderen Malta Football Association Estonian Football Federation ​ Lithuanian grassroots football association ENGSO - The European Sport NGO For more information click on the logos above > Meet ​ Ecoserveis Volunteers 04 The Play Green Volunteers Our Play Green volunteers are in close collaboration with the national federations/organisations involved in the project. Together, they will develop, implement and evaluate the national multiplier events (more details about the events in the "About" section of this homepage. In particular, there are two types of volunteers involved in the project. ​ Our Green Team are the core group of volunteers that will, in collaboration with the national federation, design the activities to green sport events, help to create an environmental campaign to make sport events more sustainable and involve the participants volunteers in the process. Volunteers ​ Our Green Participant are young people that will participate in the national multiplier events, will help to distribute the project goals and will benefit from the actions prepared by the GreenTeam Volunteers. Volunteers ​ >

Events and Activities Have a peek at what has happened already and keep yourself updated about our upcoming events and activities below > Upcoming Events Past Activities Gnejn a Beach cleanup October 2020 - Malta Football Association >