Club to raise awareness of international environmental protection initiative during Champions League matches

The Club will display the logo of international environmental protection initiative, Ant Forest, on the back of our match shirts for all remaining matches in this season’s UEFA Champions League, league phase - starting with tonight’s game away at AS Monaco.

Based in China, Ant Forest is recognised by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and in 2019 was named amongst the UN Environmental Programme’s ‘Champions of the Earth’ – a flagship programme celebrating outstanding figures and organisations that have had a transformative impact on the environment.

Launched in 2016 by Ant Financial Services Group, Ant Forest is available via a mobile app and promotes greener lifestyles by inspiring users to reduce carbon emissions in their daily lives.

Users are encouraged to record their low-carbon footprint through daily actions like taking public transport, cycling, walking, recycling or paying utility bills online. For each action, they receive ‘green energy’ points and when they accumulate a certain number of points, an actual tree is planted. Users can view images of their trees in real-time via satellite.

The Ant Forest platform is also exploring innovative solutions to alleviate poverty and improve the lives of people across China by leveraging the power of digital technology.

Since its launch, Ant Forest has attracted over 500 million users, planted 100 million real trees in Northwest China covering a total area of 112,000 hectares, and protected a total area of 12,000 hectares of conservation land. Ant Forest has also helped create around 400,000 job opportunities and RMB 60 million (USD 8.4 million) in income by working with farmers to plant trees, develop organic agricultural products, and connect them with e-commerce platforms.

Ryan Norys, Chief Revenue Officer, said: “As a Club recognised as the greenest in the Premier League through our years of environmental action and advocacy, we are proud to provide a truly global, high-profile platform of Champions League football to raise awareness of an initiative that has had such a transformative, positive impact on nature and the lives of so many people.”