"It's about the future … natural disasters, sea levels, ice melting, fires … people have to understand that's down to humans. Governments need to let the public know how we can become energy self-sufficient." From an environmental campaigner, that statement would hardly raise an eyebrow – but from a former captain of the England football team, it sounds altogether different. We've become used to musicians, film stars and celebrity chefs flaunting their eco-credentials, but green-minded sports stars are still few and far between.
Rio Ferdinand, the Manchester United centre-back who grew up on a south London council estate, seems very aware of the need for a different type of environmental messenger. Having recently become more interested in green issues, he's planning not only to reduce his own impact – and "to make sure my kids are aware" – but also to inspire regular people to do the same. "It all comes down to education. If people aren't educated, they're not going to get behind something. They need to understand it before they take a stand."
Ferdinand's green awakening started when energy company E.ON signed him up to be an advocate for their Energy Fit programme. The scheme organises competitions for local sports clubs to get energy-saving overhauls, and the community element appealed to Ferdinand. I met him in the clubhouse of century-old amateur team Alexandra Palace FC. Like Ferdinand's own home, the building has just had an "energy fitness" audit, and after the interview one of the club's staff proudly shows me their new light sensors and extra thick loft insulation.
Chatting in an upstairs office hardly big enough to accommodate his expansive frame, Ferdinand makes it clear that he's not about to become a green fanatic. "I'm not going to change my whole lifestyle overnight," he says. "I'm starting an educational journey." Judging from his passing references to unleaded petrol and the ozone hole, it seems his last period of eco-education was the 1980s. He doesn't mention climate change until prompted, but he's in no doubt that the stakes are high. When asked what's at risk if we don't look after the environment, he answers emphatically: "Trees, animals, humans … everything. Everything's endangered."
I ask Ferdinand whether he thinks the sports world – players, clubs and fans – have been slow to catch onto green issues. "It's not about that group," he replies quickly. "It's a social issue, and it's not been high on the agenda. It's not an ignorance in the sports sector but in society in general. Any walk of life is the same." But are there any other players who have taken green lifestyle steps? Ferdinand namechecks Gary Neville and David James, both of whom – like many other celebs – have dabbled in low-carbon vehicles. "Gazza's got a Prius and David James had a car powered by rapeseed oil."
By contrast, Ferdinand has started out by focusing on his home – which I rather admire, because while domestic energy efficiency is far less sexy than eco cars, it's just as important. Ferdinand, for one, seems quite fired up about it. "Little things like moving your sofa from in front of a radiator, changing lightbulbs. You get a better feeling about yourself, and the little things add up. It's like, how many pennies make a pound?"
Among many other things, Ferdinand's home energy auditors advised him to turn the thermostat down ("we just use the duvet more") and switch off appliances properly, which Ferdinand has found a way to get the kids to do ("we make it like a game – who can turn off all the switches before bed"). Another recommendation was to move the freezer, which was next to a radiator in the hottest room in the house, making it work much harder to stay cold. That's another good example of the need for education, Ferdinand says, recalling with raised eyebrows exactly the same issue in his childhood home. "I remember in my flat on the council estate, the radiator was behind the fridge. Basic things like that – you just don't see them until you're educated in the field."
What about bigger steps? High-specification insulation? Solar panels? "Yeah", he says – but those are jobs for the new-build he'll be moving into soon. "We're talking to the architects about that." In the meantime, he's sticking with small changes. The one that seems to have caught his attention the most is putting the right amount of water in the kettle. "At first I thought, how can that make a difference? But when you think about it, it's obvious." Has he now become super-vigilant on that front? "Yeah, man, if someone fills the kettle up they're gonna get …" he says, miming the punishment he has in mind.
Ferdinand currently has a Jaguar, though gone are the days when he thought of cars as glamorous. "These days I've got kids and it's just about getting them from A to B." Would he ever switch to an electric car? "Yeah, definitely." We agree that, at well over six feet tall, he wouldn't fit in a G-Wiz or some other supermini, but how about a Tesla or some such? "Not yet – all the price tags on them are crazy, aren't they? I saw one come up the other day for £2m." If Ferdinand can't afford a decent electric car then we have quite a long way to go.
In the meantime, how about eco driving? Having read that when Ferdinand was younger he lost his licence on multiple occasions for speeding, I can't help asking how he'd feel about driving more slowly to increase engine efficiency. "With maturity I started doing that anyway, so I should be already in that bracket," he says.
For an international sports star, though, flying is more problematic. "We travel week in week out. We're in France one week, Spain the next. How do you get around that? I'm yet to be told – unless you can enlighten me?" The only thing I can suggest is we have fewer of them. So now that Ferdinand is thinking about carbon footprints, how does he feel about the World Cup, say, or the Olympics, and the massive amounts of energy they consume. "I don't know – it's hard to say. It's difficult. Are you going to stop people being happy and going to big events because of the carbon footprint? Or should we make them more environmentally friendly so you're doing as little damage as possible? There's not really a right answer."
He doesn't just stop at the car and the house, either. "We grow organic food in the garden," he says, "we've got a little vegetable garden with a greenhouse where we grow tomatoes, lettuce, peppers and strawberries." Any tips for other green-fingered types? "Tomatoes are the easiest. Green beans as well. Just don't leave them out there too long or the kids start eating them." And the strawberries? "Nah. Strawberries are a no-go. Too hard!" What about the rest of his diet? Would he consider eating less meat and dairy, for instance? He looks a little bit pained and says he'd need to "get more knowledge" before thinking seriously about that. He adds, somewhat sadly, "I love meat, man."
No doubt Ferdinand's green efforts will be dismissed by some as tokenism or even greenwash. Here's a celebrity – and one who almost certainly has a fairly huge carbon footprint – focusing on little lifestyle changes rather than bigger ones, and doing so under the banner of an energy company that was until recently considered the UK's leading environmental villain. But that would, I think, be to miss the point. Popular concern about an issue can help bring about deeper political change – and Ferdinand surely has a much better chance than traditional environment campaigners of seeding that concern in as-yet unreached parts of society.
But should he be taking up a political stance on green issues as well as just tweaking his lifestyle? Ferdinand's not so sure. "That's a long way down the line for me." Without learning more, he say, taking too much of a political angle "would be just hanging myself out to dry". Returning to his favourite theme, he adds, "I think the government are trying to make a concerted effort, but it all boils down to education. People need to understand it … it has to start more grassroots." But should the government make policy changes to ensure that everyone is greener? "Yes, definitely. It's the government's duty to do that. The environment and the world we live in is changing dramatically after disregard over the years."
No comments:
Post a Comment