Local and community action

The University has partnered with Reading FC to help the club take steps towards minimising its environmental impact.

Members of the University’s Sustainability Team held a workshop at Reading’s Select Car Leasing Stadium to identify opportunities for the club to make immediate improvements to its sustainability. The club continues with a 10-point plan aimed at reducing its carbon footprint, including investigating solar panel options at its stadium and supporting fans to recycle more on match days.

As a visual marker of the partnership between the two organisations, the men’s and women’s kits for the 2022/23 season feature the climate stripes, developed at the University of Reading by Professor Ed Hawkins. Bespoke stripes illustrating how temperatures have risen in Berkshire over the past 150 years feature on the sleeves of the home shirt and down the side of the shorts for both teams, and an abstract crop of the stripes is used on the away kits. The distinctive designs attracted international press coverage and started climate conversations across the football community.

A gas-powered bus emblazoned with the climate stripes visualisation created at the University can now be seen on Reading’s roads.

One of Reading Buses' natural-gas-powered vehicles, run on carbon-neutrally sourced biomethane, has been kitted out in the climate stripes for Berkshire, showing the rise in temperature in the county over the past 150 years. 

The stripes, developed by Professor Ed Hawkins, are printed on a special vinyl which can be recycled after use. They aim to raise awareness of the scientific data behind climate change in the local area.

• We played an active role in creating a Citizens UK Alliance, which is bringing together different regional community groups to work together on social issues like climate change.

• In 2020, the largest-ever assessment of climate change health impacts in Reading was produced by a team of academics and students at the University.