Leicester Nirvana

The video begins with an upbeat, zany music track and a title slide featuring the Sport England logo and the words ‘Sport England Every Move – Case studies: Climate Justice at Leicester Nirvana FC.

On a blank screen, the text ‘Who is Leicester Nirvana?’ slides in.

A flag featuring the Leicester Nirvana club crest (comprising a lion and stars) flutters on a fence around a football pitch.

A man introduced by a caption as ‘Ivan Liburd, Club Treasurer’ stands in the club’s dressing room, with kits hung on the walls behind him.

Ivan says: “Leicester Nirvana is a grassroots football club. We're a community football club. We rely heavily on the community, we focus heavily on the community. And one of our slogans is we're ‘more than just football’.”

We see a canvas on a wall of the team group shot under the words ‘Team Work makes the Dream Work – thanks for all your support’.

The question ‘Why is climate justice important?’ appears on a blank slide.

Ivan says: “What we noticed was people like myself weren't being recognised in the conversation of sustainability.”

A wider shot of the wall with more canvasses and photos of the team is shown, before we see a close-up of the club’s crest and a banner saying ‘Striving for Excellence’.

Ivan continues: “I wanted to create a space where my community and anyone within that sphere had an opportunity to talk about sustainability. And that's when we thought about taking the angle around climate justice.”

We see a whiteboard on a wall with a football pitch and circular magnets marking player positions, under the headings ‘Accountability’ and ‘Trust’, then two football shirts (no.4 and no.9) hung up in the dressing room – one of the partner logos on the back is ‘No Racism’.

Ivan continues: “We're supporting them to understand how they can input into the conversation around sustainability, but actually they've got all these challenges in their own lives. You know, it might be social, economical challenges, might be poverty still, but how do we support them to come out of their spaces that they're currently in? The challenges that they're facing, the barriers that they're facing are about reducing inequalities by reducing carbon.”

We see a football match taking place in the distance from behind a net in a goal, then shots of young children playing during a training session on a grass field in the sunshine.

The next question slide reads ‘What have you done to reduce inequalities and reduce carbon?’

A man introduced by a caption as ‘Zak Hajat, Club Chair’ stands in the clubhouse.

Zak says: “As a club, we've always had social challenges that we've had to face. One of them going back to the early 80s was racism.”

We see a wide angle of the children training and a close-up of a person’s foot stood on a ball.

Zak continues: “So for us, education is important. the people behind the scenes use their experiences for us to then enable to educate the young people that come through the door.”

A male coach talks to a group of young players on the pitch.

Ivan says: “One of the things we're doing around education is making sure we're connecting with De Montfort University.”

The camera follows a young player sprinting down the pitch with the ball during a game, with other players in pursuit, then there’s another close-up of a ball.

A man introduced by a caption as ‘Dr Mark Charlton, De Montfort University’ stands in the clubhouse.

Mark says: “So I run the United Nations SDG 11 Chair Hub at De Montfort University. We're the only UN SDG Hub Chair in the United Kingdom.”

A young boy receives the football and passes it on, two coaches crouch beside a team of young players sat in a goalmouth, and a boy crosses he ball from the right during a game.

Mark continues: “The children of the club wrote to me in 2022 and said would I help them achieve their vision of becoming a net zero football club? So I thought this is a really exciting letter to receive. So using my connections with the United Nations I started to develop a research project with Leicester Nirvana.”

The camera follows a young player advancing down the pitch and taking a shot, then two other action shots from games.

Mark continues: “So we're making really nice progress now. We're two years down the line creating good impacts here in Hamilton and in Highfields where lots of the young people live, making some steady progress towards reducing those emissions.”

There’s a close-up of a young player rolling his feet over a ball, and another group of young players stood on the pitch.

Mark continues: “But crucially, we are spreading the word and getting people to understand the challenges of climate change and what it means for amateur football.”

A boy sprints downfield with the ball before passing to a team-mate to shoot.

Back in the dressing room, Ivan says: “One of the things we've been able to do is use the De Montfort University volunteers to come in and engage our community on various days of the year.”

There’s a close-up of one of the young players on the pitch, wearing the no.11 shirt, and another player receives the ball, turns and passes.

Ivan continues: “They'll come in, they'll do SDG engagement, they'll talk about climate change, and they're helping to educate our members around the issues that we face.”

A man introduced by a caption as ‘Mahomed Hashim, Mini Soccer Secretary’ stands in the clubhouse.

Mahomed says: “We're quite fortunate enough that we are on a journey with a number of partners to try and get our club to a sustainable level, be self-sufficient as well.”

A young player rolls his foot over the ball and knocks it past another player, then we see a close-up of a coach talking.

Mahomed continues: “We've managed to secure some grant funding from Centrica Energy for Tomorrow. We’re going to be looking at putting some solar panels on the roof, having some battery storage, as well as EV charging. So that can then become a beacon to start conversations with our members and see what they can start doing at home as well.”

The next question slide reads ‘What is your advice for others?’

Volunteers carrying goalposts beside a pitch and young players prepare for a match, two of them carrying goalposts across the grass.

Ivan says: “My advice to others around sustainability would definitely be to look at the framework for the Footballs for the Goals and the United Nations, because it really does demonstrate how you can work with communities, support individuals and just help them to be more climate-friendly.”

There’s a close-up of Ivan on the pitch as the background music fades up, more shots of mini-games taking place and the back of a young player’s shirt, showing no.4 and ‘No Racism’, before a coach fist-pumps a boy.

the video ends with a blank slide that says ‘Created by’ above the logos of Useful Projects (part of the Useful Simple Trust and a social enterprise and B Corp sustainability consultancy) and Pictures for the People (a social enterprise video production agency).