18% year-on-year reduction in Volleyball England's carbon footprint

The figure represents encouraging progress in the organisation's bid to achieve its targets laid out in its Environmental Sustainability Plan 2024–2030, as well as its wider commitment to Spiking for Net Zero by 2030.  

Key headlines from the report show that in addition to an overall reduction of total emissions from 216 tonnes of CO₂e in 2024 to 178 tonnes in 2025, there was also a 10% reduction in emissions per employee.  

Further specific reductions were seen in the areas of travel and commuting emissions (20%), emissions associated with product purchases (26%), food and drink-related emissions (43%), emissions associated with purchased services (19%) and digital carbon footprint (13%).  

Among the practical ways this has been achieved include cutting back on air travel, purchasing Awards and prize trophies that are more sustainably sourced, helping to recycle pre-gamed kit through the Kitround campaign, purchasing food and drinks for events that has less packaging and encouraging staff to delete old emails taking up data storage.

Volleyball England Chief Executive Charlie Ford said he was not only pleased with the year-on-year results, but that there was a collective will from all across the organisation to continue to make a positive difference.  

"Importantly, these results demonstrate that we are making ongoing progress across several of the priority areas identified within our Environmental Sustainability Plan, particularly around travel, procurement, resource efficiency and digital sustainability," he added.   

"It is also pleasing that we are now able to measure and monitor our environmental impact on an annual basis, giving us a much stronger evidence base from which to make decisions, identify opportunities and hold ourselves accountable.  

"When we consider that we achieved a 15% reduction in emissions last year, followed by a further 18% reduction this year, it is clear that we are building momentum and making sustained progress towards our longer-term ambitions.  

"Taken together, these successive reductions represent a cumulative reduction of approximately 30% over the two years, which is a really encouraging position to be in.    

Of course, there is still plenty of work ahead. Travel and commuting continue to account for approximately 43% of our overall emissions, and we have seen an increase in emissions associated with activities and events. These are areas that we will need to remain particularly mindful of as we continue to grow our competitions, events and wider delivery."  

Volleyball England now intends to revisit its Environmental Sustainability Plan in detail at Board level in early in 2027.  

That will provide an opportunity to review progress, reflect on the lessons learned and consider where a strengthened approach may be needed moving towards 2030.