Reflecting on the Sustainability Department’s first year of operations

J.LEAGUE, which marked the 30th anniversary of its founding in 2023, has newly established the Sustainability Department, comprised of the Social Engagement Group, which has taken over the social cooperation activity “SHAREN!” that J.LEAGUE has been engaged in to date, and the Climate Action Group, which works on addressing climate change issues. What is the goal of J.LEAGUE as it embarks on the mission of building a strategy that intertwines climate change issues with regional revitalisation? Takayuki TSUJII, the Corporate Executive Officer (in charge of sustainability) who is leading this action plan, reflects on the activities carried out in 2023.

J.LEAGUE aims to foster a community-based spirit, and till now, has continued to devote steadfast efforts to engaging in hometown activities and social cooperation (“SHAREN!”) activities. J.Clubs, of which there are currently 60, carry out more than 23,000 hometown activities every year primarily in their respective home bases. “SHAREN!” is one of these hometown activities, involving cooperation between three or more parties such as local governments or non-profit organisations (NPOs) and aimed at resolving social issues faced by the community, such as declining birth rates and an ageing society. J.Clubs also serve as hubs for the “SHAREN!” initiative and conduct more than 2,000 activities every year. Tsujii is now intentionally emphasising the point that, for the newly established department, “SHAREN!” and the “Climate Action” initiative to address climate change are closely related, like two wheels of the same car or two sides of the same coin. Today, as “global warming” moves gradually towards “global boiling,” there is no doubt that climate change is an important concern for everyone. Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions such as carbon dioxide (CO2) is an urgent matter for ensuring the continued survival of the human race. Since we will not be able to enjoy sports with peace of mind if the very foundations of society and our lives are being threatened by climate change, it is only natural that J.LEAGUE, which has been committed to engaging with the society since its inception, along with J.Clubs, are eager to recruit partner companies and organisations and work together with them to address this pressing issue.

What is J.LEAGUE attempting to achieve specifically with the establishment of this new department? Tsujii, who was an Outside Director of J.LEAGUE in 2022 and assumed position as Corporate Executive Officer in 2023, answers, “We have not necessarily achieved anything concrete as a department. We have now finished laying the groundwork and sowing the seeds, and we are at the stage where buds are beginning to emerge. I feel that everything will grow a little more next year.”
Over the past year, the department has been busy with its first task of sorting out its raison d'être, purposes, and what it needs to do. Based on that, it has formulated a strategy and, in cooperation with other departments, deepened its relationship with partner companies and J.Clubs that are interested in collaboration. As they worked to understand the intentions and circumstances of the partners, and repeated the process of matching these with the strategy that the department has established, Tsujii felt that the partners were very open-minded and facing the problem head-on. Perhaps this is because climate action is such a pressing issue that arouses people’s interest.
As a public interest incorporated association, J.LEAGUE’s basic strategy for Climate Action is to leverage the power of the 60 clubs spread out across 41 prefectures. “If the football family that extends across the whole of Japan contributes to stopping climate change in their respective hometowns, it could bring about a major social movement. The Sustainability Dept. plays a role in leading such efforts and supporting the initiatives of each region. If good practices emerge, its role is to help expand and roll out these practices to other regions.”
Within this framework, the Sustainability Dept. first tackled the task of establishing a system to measure the amount of CO2 emitted in J.LEAGUE’s 1,200 official matches. This was in response to J.LEAGUE’s declaration to offset the CO2 emissions from all official matches, announced last year at the event to mark the second anniversary of its collaboration agreement with the Ministry of the Environment. Thanks to cooperation from all the clubs, it has become possible to visualise the amount of CO2 emissions on match days, even if they are only estimated values.
GHG emissions are classified into three categories: Scope 1 (direct emissions by the reporting company itself), Scope 2 (indirect emissions generated from the use of electricity, heat, etc. supplied by others), and Scope 3 (indirect emissions from sources other than Scope 1 and Scope 2).
If these categories were applied to J.LEAGUE matches, Scope 3 would also include emissions from the flights, trains or other modes of transportation used by supporters and players when they travel, making it difficult to calculate the emissions. It was also difficult to estimate Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. The majority of the 60 clubs use stadiums owned by local governments, so if a gymnasium within the same complex were used on the same day, it became extremely difficult to distinguish the amount of electricity used by the stadium and the gymnasium respectively.
Nevertheless, after much hard work, the Sustainability Dept. was able to convert, to a certain degree, information such as the amount of fuel used by F&B outlets near the stadium and the amount of electricity used by the stadium, into data. Grasping these figures makes it possible to find out the amount of CO2 emissions per kilowatt in the case of electricity, for example, and in turn makes it possible to get an overview of the situation.
“Consequently, we learnt that of the CO2 emissions from 1,200 matches that fall under Scope 1 and 2 emissions, more than 70% was generated through the use of electricity,” explains Tsujii. According to him, these CO2 emissions have been successfully reduced to net zero by shifting essentially to using electricity from renewable energy sources in J.LEAGUE’s official matches, with the provision of Non-Fossil Certificates and Green Electricity Certificates from Marubeni Power Retail Corporation, Eurus Energy Holdings Corporation, and Japan Natural Energy Company Limited, which are J.LEAGUE Climate Action Partners that promote renewable energy projects among other green initiatives.

Another significant initiative was “TH!NK THE BALL PROJECT™” launched in partnership with NTT Group. Using “ball” to refer to both an actual ball and the Earth, in 2023, Yokohama F･Marinos, Giravanz Kitakyushu, and Vegalta Sendai, together with their fans and supporters, implemented, on an experimental basis, a project to promote changes in behaviour to take action against climate change, such as by reducing the amount of waste generated or consuming locally grown vegetables. “We will expand the scale of the project further next year, and also look closely into the details of the actions,” says Tsujii.
In his policy speech in October 2020, former Prime Minister Yoshihide SUGA spoke about reducing CO2 emission to zero by 2050. This was in line with the concept of carbon neutrality, which aims to achieve equilibrium between GHG emissions and absorptions to realise net-zero emissions.
According to Tsujii, as long as power generation methods that do not produce any CO2 do not become widespread across the whole of Japan, CO2 emissions will inevitably continue to be generated. Moreover, since CO2 released into the atmosphere remains there for hundreds of years, it is highly likely that global warming will continue to progress even if net-zero emissions were achieved now. Are there any ways of recovering the CO2 that has been emitted? Tsujii explains, “By regenerating the Earth’s environment, it will be possible to absorb and sequester carbon from the atmosphere into the Earth.”
“The example that is easiest to understand is forests. If the trees are healthy, they absorb CO2, use chlorophyll to photosynthesize, and release only O2 back into the atmosphere. Carbon is consumed by hundreds of millions of microorganisms in the fertile soil, and returns to the ground through the roots of trees. Seaweed does the same. In that sense, the regeneration of the natural environment is extremely important.”
J.LEAGUE’s Title Partner and Climate Action Partner, Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company, has launched environment conservation initiatives with the subtitle, “Forest to Weave the Future.” Forests may hold greater significance beyond landscape conservation.
Tsujii also says that power generation that does not emit CO2 is compatible with regional revitalisation as a means of realising carbon neutrality. Most of such forms of power generation are derived from renewable energy that harnesses the power of nature. Naturally, the power to be used varies depending on the natural environment and the climate of the region, so it is up to each region to choose a power generation method that suits itself. Generating power in the local region, even on a small scale, and having the people living on that land use it to fuel economic activities, brings about the circulation of various benefits within that local region. “Agrivoltaics (which is called ‘Solar Sharing’ in Japanese),” an initiative that is advancing in various parts of Japan, involves the installation of solar panels in agricultural fields to enable solar power generation while growing vegetables at the same time. It is apparently an experiment aimed at bringing about such a recycling-oriented society. This kind of strengthened local foundation benefits the J.Clubs that are based in the regions.

At the close of 2023, which can be described as the first year of operations for the Sustainability Dept., Tsujii sets out three challenges for the future—“To draw up a roadmap setting out what J.LEAGUE aims to achieve in the context of sustainability, over the next 5 or 10 years,”; “To increase the number of specific case studies, such as Agrivoltaics, so that it does not end up becoming a pie in the sky”; and, “The third challenge is communication. J.LEAGUE’s website does not even have a page on climate action at the moment. We must come up with a plan for communicating with stakeholders over two or three years.”
He says, “When we have achieved these three goals, I believe the degree of awareness and clarity on what we are doing will be heightened further.”
Some may be of the view that carbon offsetting only on match days, out of the 365 days in a year, has limited effectiveness. CO2 is emitted regularly in offices and in our daily lives, and it is impossible to bring global warming to a halt simply by appealing to fans and supporters to change their mindsets and behaviour as well as taking action. Nevertheless, Tsujii maintains that the initiatives implemented by each club in each region are of great importance.
“Hypothetically, even if 60 clubs were to set up 60 small power plants, they are no more than a tiny dot when compared to the total amount of energy generated in Japan. Even so, over the past 30 years of J.LEAGUE’s history, the J.Clubs have built up very good relationships with organisations such as local governments, schools, local companies and NPOs, and the local offices of the relevant government agencies. I feel that the presentation of a new model by such J.Clubs, which are becoming hubs in their respective regions, will become a source of inspiration.”
“If the angle of a protractor that we are holding changes by 1 or 2 degrees, that angle will widen enormously after 30 years. I think that one of our goals is to make a difference in this way. We aim to visualise various approaches, create opportunities for realising the potential of these approaches, and spread them to other regions. I believe this will eventually lead to the creation of an autonomous and decentralized network society in which vibrant communities are connected loosely.” A pebble thrown by the football family creates ripples that spread outwards to become a nationwide movement, even changing the structure of society. It may be a monumental challenge, but if we do not throw the pebble, there will not even be any ripples.

Written by Yukinori TAKECHI (Nikkei inc.)