It was kinda unavoidable. Everyone is talking about football these days, so I’ll do so too. It shouldn’t come as a big surprise that the World Cup is a small disaster for the environment. Tens of thousands of supporters flying to Russia from around the world. An abundance of beer served in single-use plastic cups. A stunning amount of industrial meat being devoured in the form of sausages… I don’t want to pull this through a carbon footprint calculator to be honest.

Yet, what about the stadiums? Mastodonts of steel and concrete, which are very carbon intensive building materials, fitted with huge lights to reveal the spectacle to the audience in the tribunes and at home. And after all the World Cup mania dies down and people return home, some undoubtedly more satisfied than others, the buildings will probably not be used more than once every week or so. Doesn’t sound like the most sustainable infrastructure investment ever to me.

Luckily, luckily, some football stadiums show that it can be different. Inspired by an article in Eco Business, I made an overview of my top sustainable football stadiums below. Take a look during halftime! Enjoy the rest of the world cup ;)