Leisure services sustainability routemap

The public leisure sector is enjoyed by millions across the UK, and it provides significant social and economic value to communities. This sector broadly includes facilities such as leisure centres, ice rinks, swimming pools, playing fields, green gyms, golf courses, tennis and basketball courts, outdoor football/pitch facilities, skate parks, athletics stadia, watersports centres, trampoline, climbing and soft play facilities. Local authorities provide these spaces and facilities for people to be active, to improve their physical and mental health and wellbeing, whilst connecting communities. Sport England have calculated that every £1 spent on sport and physical activity generates almost £4 in return across health and wellbeing, strengthening communities and the national economy.

However, the sector has been hit hard by the effects of COVID-19. The pandemic resulted in long periods of closure, and this, combined with high maintenance costs, increases to energy bills and the cost-of-living crisis has significantly affected the viability of many leisure facilities. Specifically, over two-thirds of public sport and leisure facilities are past their lifespan and require refurbishment or replacement. Research by the District Councils Network (DCN) shows that old and energy inefficient leisure facilities are responsible for contributing between 10 – 40 per cent of a district councils’ direct carbon emissions.

According to the British Association for Sustainability in Sport, who have published 12 guiding principles for the assessment of sustainability performance for sports facilities, some of the key sustainability challenges facing sports and leisure are: energy consumption, waste management, the impact of materials, biodiversity, along with accessibility and equality. The financial and climate-related challenges that this sector is facing put these services under a spotlight, however there is also renewed recognition of the vital contribution they make to communities and the opportunities present for engagement and education across a diverse range of stakeholders.

There is a significant opportunity for sustainability improvements within leisure services. This routemap has been designed to support local council officers in becoming intelligent commissioners of the Net Zero transition and to enable them to provide wider sustainability advice, to effectively target investments and to reduce negative environmental impacts such as carbon emissions, waste, and pollution.

The leisure services routemap suggests interventions that could improve sustainability outcomes through council services with a focus on relevant facilities, complementing existing council projects and actions. It enables reflection on your work in this area and how things could be improved.

This is the beginning of an ongoing piece of work for the LGA. These interventions are a first draft and we will be adding and amending them based on initial feedback. We welcome your thoughts on how we can improve and develop the routemaps. Please fill in the feedback form (opens in new tab) to let us know your thoughts.

The routemaps provide a menu of interventions council staff can reflect on and consider applying to their role, team or service area. Some may require collaboration and partnership with colleagues, other service areas, businesses or communities. Others may be within the remit of individuals to explore.

The routemaps are not broken down by service area or council type, as the themes are cross-cutting and affect all councils and service areas. Instead, the routemaps present categories and sub-categories of interventions, based on their potential to drive change and achieve the project goal.

Buildings (retrofit, building design, building use)

• Analyse where carbon emission hotspots exist within your portfolio of facilities and target improvements where the largest benefits can be feasibly achieved. This could be achieve through procuring specialist advise or using available online tools, several of which have been signposted by BASIS.
• Appraising options for renewable energy generation including installation of PV Panels and air / water / ground source heat pumps, for example Cambridge City Council’s Decarbonisation Scheme. 
• Implement long-term thinking into the design of new facilities to support future retrofitting of energy efficiency measures if not feasible within current capital expenditure.
• Prioritising retrofitting of existing facilities and infrastructure over construction of new ones, if feasible, to reduce embodied environmental impacts associated with new construction. 
• Utilising external assessments, certification schemes and standards to improve the sustainability of new facilities during construction and operations – e.g. the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) or Passivhaus as per Exeter City Council’s St Sidwell’s Point Project.

• Installing provision for solar powered charging of vehicles, which can also generate a revenue stream.

• Ensuring that facilities are provisioned with green travel options and that these are promoted – bike storage should be sheltered from the environment, secure, well-lit and easily accessible; pedestrian routes should be clearly sign posted. 

• Consider the findings of the Healthy New Towns programme, focussed on  embedding healthy places at the design stage, when developing new facilities.
• Reviewing where structural, insulation, or passive design solutions can be implemented to increase the energy efficiency of buildings.
• Reviewing opportunities for collaborative projects which could support multiple parties, for example solar farms or district heat networks.
• Reviewing opportunities for shared building use.
• Ensuring accessibility is a focus throughout design, construction and operation.

Utilities (Energy, water, waste)

• Reviewing options to procure renewable energy tariffs.

• Incorporating water recycling or reuse system into facilities, for example the recycling of grey water storage and use (for example in toilet flushing) or simply installing water butts to collect rainwater.

• Consider innovative solutions such as wastewater heat recovery systems which have been implemented at the Aqualibrium leisure centre in Scotland or Deep Green who use heat recovery from data centres to heat swimming pools.

• Review and optimise irrigation systems for pitches and greens to maximise efficiency and reduce water consumption, for example at Stevenage Borough Council golf course.

• Practical measures to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions include replacing gas boilers with heat pump systems, retrofitting insulation, installing PV Panels, utilising LED lighting and upgrade window glazing. All of the above measures were implemented at Salt Ayre Leisure Centre in Lancaster. 

• Appraising opportunities to electrify fleet plant and vehicles e.g. vans, mowers, boats etc., or switching to use vehicles which use biofuels.

• Installing motion sensors for lighting systems.

• Ensuring the safe storage of fuels if required, e.g. bunded with spill mitigation kits. 

Green space

• Managing external space to support local biodiversity and climate change adaptation, this could include the provision of green roofs or walls, window plant boxes, rain gardens, and strategic planting designed to enhance shade and ventilation. This will also support the Biodiversity Net Gain requirements of new facilities.

• Reviewing opportunities for easy to implement initiatives such as ‘no mow’ areas, insect hotels or dead wood areas to support local biodiversity.

• Maintaining existing green spaces to encourage outdoor activity and for the improvement of mental health and wellbeing, for example the Stevenage Vacant bus station transformation.

• Utilising Nature-based solutions such as rain gardens, swales or tree planting to mitigate against surface water flooding, for example in Essex’s Main Rain Happy Scheme.

• Ensuring the management of water sports and supporting activities (e.g. moorings) do not impact sensitive underwater or bankside habitats.

• Can owned or managed green space be utilised for growing produce for staff or commercial use, e.g. cafés, or for community gardens?

• Focus on habitat creation rather than ‘tree planting’ to ensure focus on native, local biodiversity-friendly planting.

• Embedding relevant targets and key performance indicators (KPIs) into policy, regulation, strategy and process (e.g. procurement process) to measure and monitor sustainability performance.

• Including Healthy place shaping principles and/or Health impact assessments into all local plans.

• Developing environmental strategy which establishes priorities and actions across all relevant topics, for example the South Downs Leisure environmental strategy which included staff transport, utilities, green energy and even local honey production.
• Developing relevant services to target community groups who will benefit most rather than concentrating on a universal offer, e.g. increasing access to a wider range of sports for underprivileged groups.
• Implementing policies to reduce the impact of chemicals. This should include cleaning equipment (use of eco-cleaning products only), reducing or removing fertilisers and pesticide use, safe storage of fuels (bunded), harmful activities near water (cleaning or painting water sports equipment) and the effective management of washdown facilities (including suitable discharge permits for wastewater).
• Reviewing whether a biosecurity policy is required to implement measures reducing the movement and impacts of invasive species.
• Implementing policy to remove harmful materials entirely, for example no single-use plastic.
• Using the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) to frame policy and regulation for example the Isle of Wight Council now use the UN SDGs in decision making having developed a decision wheel for all departments.
• Reviewing a policy to ensure green space is provided in all new developments.

• Review and apply for Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) when applications are live.

• Appraising opportunities to apply for Sports England’s Small Grants Programme or Active Together funds, particularly for projects focussed on addressing inequalities around health outcomes or activity levels.

• Reviewing opportunities for investment into targeted advertising on value creation and/or co-benefits, for example more sustainable methods of travel and the link to health benefits.

• Developing a list of potential government funding and grants which can support new or existing projects.

• Work alongside other sector partners, e.g. schools, to establish local requirements and help develop the evidence and delivery opportunities to underpin funding applications across government.

• Reviewing investments decisions through value models and calculations to expand thinking beyond simply capital costs into co-benefits. These could include carbon cost, long term climate mitigation, social value or doughnut economics.

• Appraising Comic Relief Sport for Change opportunities.

• Focussing investments on mitigating impact hotspots, for example swimming pools due to energy and water requirements.

• Establishing networking opportunities, such as the Green Champions team in Carmarthenshire County Council, Wales, who feed into a project matrix for green and carbon reduction projects identifying best practice across leisure services.

• Utilising case studies and awards to identify opportunities and contacts. For example the LGA case study library, the Local Innovation Awards Scheme for Councils and the Local Government Chronical Awards.

• Rolling out Carbon Literacy training for key staff, for example leadership, service heads, building managers and councillors. This could also be considered for key stakeholders such as sports clubs or other regular facility users.
• Developing consolidated lists of clear and trusted information sources and signposting around new sustainable technologies.
• Using available research to inform decisions around sustainability, for example how many times do reusable cups have to be used in replacing single-use cups for an overall reduction in environmental impacts, and can your events achieve that return rate?
• Developing training programmes or materials to increase the confidence of staff on their understanding of sustainability and their role in it.
• Developing clear design guidance focussed on the long-term sustainability of leisure facilities. Sport England is regularly updating guidance in this space, and future plans include design guidance for architects.
• Developing community and stakeholder engagement activities to understand what drives decision making around individual sustainable choices and what barriers people face. Use this to inform behavioural change campaigns. 
• Sharing information about funding and grant availability along with successful applications.
• Linking with social media to share sustainable messages and achievements with the community.

• Applying the ‘waste hierarchy’ to prioritise waste reduction in leisure facilities.

• Encouraging partnerships across local authorities and partners to develop collaborative strategy and shared outcomes. For example, Sport England run the Place Partnership programme which looks to collaborate with local authorities, the NHS and community groups in areas with high inactivity levels.

• Working with suppliers to identify sustainable solutions, for example printing and marketing organisations that use vegetable ink to minimise impact or food suppliers that source seasonally, locally and offer plant-based options.

• Developing a sustainable products database which could also be shared with the public to support their purchasing decisions.
• Identifying opportunities to share suitable datasets, for example with universities.
• Developing accessible information for the public on health and wellbeing, along with other relevant topics. This could include working with your Director of Public Health, or across council tiers in two-tier areas.

• Focusing leisure services on addressing inequalities to support a systems level and proportionate universalism approach to community health and wellbeing.

• Identifying opportunities to embed circular economy principles when considering problem waste streams, for example the Leisure loop recycling scheme, which transformed previously non-recycled pool waste into new items. 

• Shifting the focus from leisure to active wellbeing, developing hubs with a diverse range of services under one roof.

• Measuring and embedding co-benefits, for example environmental and cost factors, into decision-making.

• Measuring and reporting the social value of leisure services, including local insight reports generated by Moving Communities.

• Reviewing the impact of your value chain rather than simply operations. For example aim to reduce the carbon emissions (scope 3) associated with your supply chain, example: Newport City Council.
• Linking leisure services into town planning and place making with associated benefits such as increasing footfall in town centres.

• Helping create a society that understands the benefits of physical activity through engagement activities such as community outreach and targeted events. 

• Implementing a volunteering policy which allows staff time to be involved with sustainable projects in the local community.

• Developing engagement initiatives focussed on empowering young people to affect change on the climate and biodiversity crisis. In particular, ensure their voices, ideas and opinions feel heard within community initiatives and highlight the positive steps that are being taken locally, nationally, and globally. Examples could include skill-building workshops, citizen science projects or local action projects but with an emphasis on co-creation or youth-led solutions.

• Developing engagement initiatives to empower communities to make maximum use of transport initiatives, such as Stevenage’s unique Cycleway network.

• Communicating the benefits of Active Travel and how it increases physical activity as part of everyday life, aiming to increase journeys made by walking, wheeling, or cycling.
• Embedding inclusive values into facilities and staff to welcome all individuals and demographics to relevant leisure and sports activities, for example F51 in Folkestone.