From football pitches to community parks: How sport is coming Together for Good this Great Big Green Week

Sport has always been about more than what happens on the pitch. It brings communities together, inspires young people, and shapes the places where we live. This Great Big Green Week, clubs, foundations and organisations across the UK are showing what that means in practice - taking action for nature and climate in the communities they call home.

Young people, big questions

Some of the most inspiring activities this year involve young people. In Northampton, the Northampton Town FC Community Trust will deliver a workshop in Irchester Community Primary School exploring the lifecycle of plastic waste, before taking pupils to a local recycling facility to see the process in action, and finishing with a community litter pick. 

Caption: Young people take part in a litter pick with Birmingham City FC Foundation

Birmingham City FC Foundation is taking a different approach, bringing communities together to restore civic pride in the park and begin to address antisocial behaviour - uniting neighbourhood groups for a litter pick, sport and physical activity, and a social picnic. They are also collaborating with the University of Birmingham on a Sustainability Dragons' Den and delivering green education across partner schools. And on 11th June, the Foundation is working with Sport Birmingham and Final Third to host a stand at Girls of Brum, where more than 500 young women will be invited to make wildflower seed bombs and write promises to the planet on wooden discs to take away - a small, tangible act of connection with the natural world.

In Rotherham, the Rotherham United Community Trust is asking an open question to partner schools: what does Rotherham look like in 100 years? Their art competition, running throughout June, invites young people to imagine the future of their city and their club - a creative prompt that opens up conversations about the environment, community and what we want to leave behind.

These are organisations using the trust and reach that sport gives them to spark conversations that matter, and to show young people that their actions count.

Protecting the places where sports lives 

This Great Big Green Week is also a chance to celebrate the natural spaces where sport happens - and to protect them. On 6th June, the Where Football Lives campaign will attempt a world record: the most people doing keepy-uppies simultaneously, across venues including Winklebury Sports Complex in Basingstoke (open to the public - book at footballworldrecord.com), Marlow FC, Tooting and Mitcham, Tring, Wembley Goals and Leicester. It is collective action at scale, shining a light on the green spaces where the game is rooted and reminding us that protecting nature and protecting football are part of the same story.

Credit: Ulster GAA

That connection runs through Ulster GAA's plans too. Having recently become signatories of the Sports for Nature Framework, Ulster GAA are developing a biodiversity garden at their Armagh headquarters, while two of their clubs are going further still: one hosting a bio blitz to help residents discover and record the wildlife on their doorstep, another running a wildlife garden workshop to inspire members to create spaces where nature can thrive. Across both campaigns, the message is the same: the places where sport lives must be protected. 

Collective action, from the pitch to the park

Bringing communities together for good is at the heart of what Great Big Green Week is about - and sport is well placed to do exactly that. GoodGym will host hundreds of sessions across more than 60 locations in England and Wales throughout the week, with GoodGymers running, walking and cycling to environmental projects: turning compost at city farms, planting trees and wildflower meadows. All sessions are free and open to anyone aged 18 or over. 

Caption: GoodGym and Friends of St James’ Gardens take part in GBGW 2025

These are different events, in different places, organised by different people. But together they add up to something much bigger: sport showing that action for climate and nature is stronger when it comes from the hearts of communities, and the clubs and organisations that people love have a powerful role to play in action for climate and nature.  

Sport coming Together for Good

From football pitches to GAA grounds, from classrooms in Northampton to community parks in Birmingham, sport is showing what it means to come together for good this Great Big Green Week. Whether you're spotting butterflies, doing keepy-uppies or imagining a greener future, Great Big Green Week is the perfect moment to be part of it. 

Find a Great Big Green Week event near you: greatbiggreenweek.com. 

If you’re a sports organisation interested in becoming a partner or getting involved in Great Big Green Week, you can find out more here.