Making Touch as green as the grass we play on

The England Touch Association is launching an exciting new initiative to make Touch more sustainable, and we need your help in shaping its priorities.

From plastic pollution to global heating, participating in Touch can both contribute to the problem and suffer from its consequences. Who hasn’t had a Touch match disrupted by some form of freak weather? Freakish extreme heat and intense rain are fast becoming normal, both of which affect game play in their own way. And often we need to drive to participate in Touch, create plastic waste and end up throwing away old touch kit that can’t be recycled or reused. 

But what can our sport do to help, surely this is a global problem? Sport England and the Sport and Recreation Alliance have just launched a Sport, Environment and Climate Coalition, which commits the whole sporting sector to acting on sustainability, working together to reduce our impact on the planet and to protect the future of sport in our country. The ETA will actively engage with this Coalition.

There are lots of sustainability problems that we could work on. No one goal is more important than another, but for our sport, we want to understand your priorities and get your ideas on how touch can make a difference to the things you care about. By focusing on the things that matter to you and that our sport can have the biggest positive impact on, we can be part of the solution. 

Please take our quick five question by CLICKING HERE and if you would like to get more involved in developing specific projects get in touch with David Cope on sustainability@englandtouch.org.uk. We’re especially interested in hearing if you, your club or your league is already thinking about taking action locally.