Procurement is of cross-cutting relevance and involves purchasing the goods required by the sports club in the most sustainable manner possible while focusing on the most durable and repairable products available. To this end, sustainability criteria need to be part and parcel of procurement processes.
Procuring regional products is a way of encouraging sustainable development in the region by ensuring that added value stays in the region and the products have a smaller carbon footprint. However, regional cannot simply be equated with sustainable and/or organic. Any such generalisation would be flawed and fails to take into account other aspects of sustainability such as: how are the products made, what resources are used, how much energy is needed, how are they packaged, what is the impact on biodiversity, and lots more.
For sports clubs, the following goals are relevant to achieve sustainability:
- Sustainable financial performance on the part of the club and backup savings
- Sustainable procurement that can be measured using verifiable criteria and that is, above all, environmentally sound, healthy, fair and regional
- •Efficient and low-resource club management