Launching our Green Challenge Trophy

A year ago, England Touch launched our exciting initiative to make Touch a more sustainable sport. As the National Touch Series season fast approaches, we are thrilled to be launching the ETA Green Challenge Trophy.

Every team playing in the upcoming Men’s, Women’s and Mixed NTS tournaments is eligible to compete in the Green Challenge Trophy as part of their NTS entry. Sponsored by EV2, each winning team will receive a special (and sustainable) prize for all their players. 

CLICK HERE to download more information, including a link to the online form!

The secret to winning your Green Challenge category is to have all your team-mates making green choices over each tournament weekend. Every player will log their green actions on a simple online form, with the winning team being the one that accumulates the most green tries over their NTS competition rounds. There are no divisions, so whether you’re playing in NTS Division 1 or Division 4, you have the chance to bring the Green Challenge Trophy home for your club.

The details of the competition and the link for your team-mates to log their green actions will be circulated as part of the competition briefing, but you’ll be scoring green tries for actions that align with our sustainability priorities.

We’ve been consulting ETA members on what you think our sustainability priorities should be through a survey last year, and through a suggestions box at the recent Nationals tournament in Nottingham.

We received clear feedback - you are concerned about the climate (84%) and nature (74%) crisis, waste and plastic pollution (68%) and the harms caused by unsustainable transport (58%) and food (52%).

When asked what you wanted England Touch to prioritise in our sustainability initiatives it was reducing waste (better recycling, less plastic pollution and use of recycled products) and more sustainable transport and travel.

Over the past year, England Touch has started to make changes in response to these concerns:

• Our new kit supplier contract was awarded, in part, due to the sustainability credentials of EV2. They manufacture many of their products in the UK, reducing transport emissions, and are keen to develop their recycled material range as part of the England Touch offer.
• Our successful proposal to FIT to host the 2024 World Cup included a clear sustainability commitment, aiming to make the event the greenest World Cup. 
• We encouraged all participants at Nationals to prioritise public transport in their travel plans, use the free drinking water on site rather than bringing single-use plastic bottles, and worked with the venue to introduce some better recycling facilities.
• We set up a Sustainability working group, led by David Cope and involving members from all parts of the game. 

England Touch is committed to improving the sustainability of Touch across all our activities, but we can only do that by working with everyone involved in the sport. If you have thoughts on how to improve the sustainability of the sport we love, or want to get directly involved in our sustainability working group, contact David at sustainability@englandtouch.org.uk.