Man City and Etihad Airways join in sustainability journey

The pods aim to inspire fans to make conscious choices and join the sustainability journey.

As part of the airlines Recycle, Reward, Repeat initiative, the pods - which will in place at the stadium from this weekend’s game - will allow fans to recycle plastic bottles and earn exclusive Etihad rewards.

Manchester City has made significant steps on its sustainability journey over a number of years, developing and adopting more environmentally friendly practices. These include a managed waste system which means that zero waste is sent to landfill from the Etihad Campus, the removal of single-use plastics from the Etihad Stadium and successful trialling this season of edible coffee cups, increasing vegan food options and switching to compostable packaging amongst much more.

In the spirit of its Choose Well campaign, Etihad Airways has recently launched the Conscious Choices loyalty programme where guests can show their love and care for the planet by making eco-conscious choices. The programme rewards travellers with Tier Miles and additional benefits for carrying less baggage on board and offsetting their flights’ carbon emissions using Etihad Guest Miles.

In addition to that and after two years of intensive research and development, innovation and transformation through its Greenliner programme to tackle aviation decarbonisation, Etihad Airways in collaboration with Environment Agency Abu Dhabi and Al Jubail Island has launched the Etihad Mangrove Forest. This provides guests, corporate accounts and partners the ability to contribute to the growth and maintenance of mangroves to reduce their carbon footprint.

Using a unique digital platform facilitated by EcoMatcher, the Etihad Mangrove Forest will allow guests and partners to invest in the forest, where the individual trees can be tracked online or through a dedicated app. The guest receives a unique tree code, geolocation, and virtual access to their tree for the next 10 years. The guest can gift the tree to their loved ones and name the tree to create a unique experience and bond.

Pete Bradshaw, Director of Sustainability at Manchester City said: “Manchester City has a clear set of values as we continue on our sustainability journey and look to adopt more environmentally friendly approaches and connect with our communities to encourage and change behaviours. As an organisation, we have taken significant steps in terms of waste management, consumption, energy efficiency and water use in recent years. We will continue to work towards our goals in this space.

“This latest activation with Etihad Airways is another positive collaboration with one of our Club partners that will hopefully inspire and encourage fans to recycle and raise further awareness of the need to reduce waste across our club, city and planet.”

Mariam Al Qubaisi, Head of Sustainability and Business Excellence, Etihad Airways, said: “Our world is becoming more environmentally conscious by the day. Etihad is proud to play a major part in reducing the environmental impact of the aviation industry to the best of its ability, in the UAE and around the world. We have recorded many great achievements, from our first ecoFlight from Abu Dhabi to Brisbane in 2019, to the recent launch of our Sustainability-focused loyalty programme, Conscious Choices, to reward guests for making sustainable choices when they travel and in their everyday life, and now with the Recycle, Reward, Repeat initiative which we are taking to the Etihad Stadium on derby day and for the remainder of the season.”