Greengage worked with Brentford Football Club to develop its first nature strategy, Connected by Our Nature, which outlines how it plans to create a positive impact on biodiversity to support both the club and its community.
Nature is a core pillar of Brentford FC’s wider sustainability strategy, and this work establishes a clear, structured approach to enhancing nature on the club’s sites, in the local area and across wider decision making.
Credit: Brentford Football Club
A focused and practical approach
The strategy focuses on three key areas where the club interacts with nature:
- On their sites (training grounds and stadia)
- In their local area
- Within wider decision making
This structure ensures a holistic view of nature-related risks, dependencies, and opportunities. It also highlights how tangible these interactions are, starting with what the club directly controls and extending to areas where visibility is more limited but potential impact is high. For example, nature at the club’s physical sites is visible and measurable, while impacts within supply chains are harder to track but may deliver the greatest benefits if addressed.
Establishing a biodiversity baseline
At each of the club’s sites, Greengage carried out biodiversity habitat condition assessments, supported by existing biodiversity data from Greenspace Information for Greater London (GIGL).
The data was analysed using the Statutory Biodiversity Metric, a UK-standard tool that assigns a measurable value to habitats based on their size, condition and ecological importance.
This process enabled Brentford FC to quantify biodiversity across all its sites, establish a clear baseline and identify opportunities for improvement.
Enhancing nature on-site
Working closely with the Brentford FC grounds teams and sustainability team, practical interventions were recommended to improve biodiversity across their Jersey Road training ground, the Gtech Stadium, Club Superstore and Wheatsheaf Park. Measures to improve nature on the sites also had to ensure there were minimal indirect impacts to the performance of playing surfaces.
Enhancements that have been undertaken to date include:
- Planting of higher-quality habitats such as trees, wildflower grasslands and biodiverse shrub species.
- Installing species-specific features such as bee panels, insect posts, bird boxes, bat boxes, hedgehog houses, and reptile and amphibian shelters.
- New community spaces that support both people and nature.
These actions align with the club’s ambition to improve nature for the long term and as far as practical, at each site, measured through ongoing monitoring using the Biodiversity Metric.
As part of efforts to enhance the site’s value for nature, it was recognised that sporting organisations often rely on high-powered artificial lighting, typically in the form of floodlights. When creating areas for wildlife, it is essential to protect these habitats from artificial light disturbance. Therefore, the club identified measures to reduce the negative impact of artificial light use. This will not only support local biodiversity, but also deliver additional benefits for nearby communities by reducing light pollution.
Credit: Brentford Football Club
Supporting nature in the community
To better understand the community’s current and future interactions with nature, a series of stakeholder engagement workshops with local and club affiliated organisations were held. These sessions explored how local spaces and people could be supported by Brentford FC to deliver positive nature initiatives, through outreach and provision of volunteer time and resources.
The number of projects/interventions supported will be recorded to provide a reportable metric value.
Embedding nature in decision-making
Finally, Greengage helped Brentford FC identify ways that they can take action against the four pillars of the Taskforce for Nature Related Financial Disclosure’s (TNFD) recommendations.
Leading by example in sport
Brentford FC’s nature strategy and considerations beyond the club’s sites is the first by an English Premier League football team and also likely a world football first, showing true leadership in the sports world.
The club is also one of two Premier League clubs to sign up for the Sports for Nature Framework (S4N). An initiative created by multiple organisations including the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the United Nations Environment Programme, S4N aims to deliver transformative action for nature across sports, by 2030 and beyond.
Greengage continues to support Brentford FC in delivering the strategy. In 2025, the first year of biodiversity net gain monitoring was completed, marking an important step in tracking progress and refining future actions.
