UEFA Women’s EURO 2025: Sustainability in action

UEFA's Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Strategy for the tournament, unveiled in October 2024, is designed to accelerate sustainability efforts, meet growing societal expectations and deliver long-term value.

The ESG strategy sets out three overarching goals: reducing environmental impact wherever possible; safeguarding and honouring the rights of individuals of all ages, backgrounds, nationalities and abilities; and embracing transparent, responsible and accountable practices throughout all operations.

These goals are broken down into 11 areas of action, 27 topics, 47 targets and 97 specific initiatives, covering issues such as smart mobility, accessibility, human rights and stakeholder engagement.

How we work

Integration: We put sustainability at the core of our operations. From planning to execution, we catalyse targeted investments and measures based on the tournament ESG strategy, in full alignment with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

Experience: We draw from existing good practices of the Swiss Football Association (SFV/ASF) and UEFA to create a lasting legacy.

Collaboration: We engage with all stakeholders— national associations, players, fans, host cities, local authorities and partners – to create a collective impact. Most notably, each of the eight tournament venues features a sustainability venue manager working alongside around 50 volunteers to implement our ambitions.

Awareness: Through our active campaigns and initiatives, we aim to raise public awareness about social and environmental sustainability topics.

Here are a few highlights of how we are implementing sustainability at Women’s EURO:

Environment 🌳

Climate action: A key objective is to minimise the tournament’s environmental footprint by promoting sustainable smart mobility solutions, such as providing free public transport for ticket holders travelling within the host country. On matchdays, match tickets will be valid for a free second-class round trip between any Swiss locality and the match venue.

The match schedule has been planned to reduce team travel during the group phase, giving teams the opportunity to travel by train or coach within Switzerland. The final team base camp selection contributes to this ambition as most federations have chosen a team base camp which is either centrally located or close to their group stage matches.

Circular economy: We embrace the circular economy model, addressing waste generation in all eight stadiums through the 4R principle: reusing, reducing, recycling and recovering waste. This includes the use of innovative packaging for food served at selected stadiums, as well as upcycling solutions through the repurposing of tournament signage.

Social 🧑🏻‍🤝‍🧑🏻

Human rights: In line with our human rights declaration, Women’s EURO 2025 is delivering a comprehensive set of measures designed to ensure the welfare and safety of all participants and spectators. This includes grievance and rapid response mechanisms to combat discrimination, protect the fans and provide immediate support.

Accessibility: Women’s EURO 2025 is for everyone. We are working with host cities, venues and partners on a wide range of accessibility measures to guarantee that the tournament provides a welcoming environment for everyone.

Diversity and inclusion: Our FootbALL programme harnesses the sport as a catalyst to foster positive change in society, with a simple yet significant message: in football, everyone is welcome.

Governance 🏛️

Transparency: We adopt transparent, responsible and accountable forms of conduct in the event's operations, in line with international principles.

Reporting: A dedicated report assessing the performance of the ESG Strategy will be available online at the end of 2025.

Learning by sharing: We share knowledge and good practices in continuous discussions with host cities, partners and other football stakeholders to shape a sustainable legacy.

With this holistic concept, we aim to contribute to the success of Women’s EURO 2025 and lay a further milestone on our mission to inspire, activate and accelerate collective action in support of social and environmental sustainability within European football.