Istanbul Başakşehir: Promoting Sustainability Through Football
Istanbul Başakşehir FK joined the #Morethanfootball Action Weeks this year to promote the social power of football and the community initiatives the club ran throughout the year. An important theme in their programmes this year has been sustainability, and the Turkish club used the #Morethanfootball platform to spread awareness amongst the European football community on climate change and environmental protection.
This season, Başakşehir has added a green colourway to its kit selection. Their 3rd kit was designed this way to bring people’s attention to the problems of deforestation and climate change. This is part of a broader partnership agreement with a local start-up, Ecording, which develops technological methods to increase individuals’ environmental awareness and offers environmentally-friendly solutions and alternatives to people’s daily practices. Through this collaboration and digital challenges, Başakşehir hope to plant 10,000 seeds to support the safe development of our planet.
Once fans have their green kits, after they scan the QR code provided, they will be directed to the project web page. Their tree’s journey will begin after they registered with their name, e-mail and selection of the seed kind. They will be able to track their tree’s journey and share the seeding video on their social media channels.
Yesterday, the club participated in a challenge with other Turkish clubs to support their cause. All clubs have joined forces to fight the forest fires in Hatay by donating seeds and baby trees. Istanbul Başakşehir symbolically donated 2,014 seeds and trees, as a reference to the foundation year of the club.
President of İstanbul Başakşehir FK Göksel Gümüşdağ expressed his excitement and satisfaction with the project: “At the beginning of the last year, as a whole World, we entered an interesting period. We experience the results of global warming which we feel more, year by year, in a much more realistic and painful way in these days. It was important for us to finish such a difficult period as Champions. However, being visible on such big stages as the Champions League gives us responsibilities and better opportunities to fulfil them. We have been working on this project over 6 months. There is about a year of work for the design of the green kit. In addition to the epidemic, we have recently been fighting against forest fires in our country and it is the same in other places. I believe it is the right time to start such a project for our Planet. Thus, I would like to thank Bilcee, our kit supplier, for their efforts in the design, Ecording, a young and successful initiative, for their contribution to and collaboration on the project, and lastly, congratulations to our team for their good work. Although we will play behind closed doors for a while more, I invite all fans to the Başakşehir Store and trendyol.com to buy a green kit for a common goal.”
