Real Betis holds second Forever Green sustainability gala in Barcelona

The second Forever Green gala, organized by the sustainability platform of professional football club Real Betis, was held in Barcelona on Wednesday morning. 

The event brought together personalities from the worlds of sports, entertainment, and business with the aim of showing the sectors’ commitment to the environment through actions combating climate change.

A round table discussion, business elevator pitches, and an awards ceremony were the order of the day at the gala held in the CaixaForum in the Catalan capital. 

Hugo Morán, Spain’s secretary for the environment, gave the inaugural speech, in which he highlighted the need for the world to work together to face the climate crisis, drawing similarities to how football teams work together in a nod to Real Betis’s organizing role of the event. Forever Green has grown in its two years to become “a reference point in sustainability in the world of sport,” Morán said. 

“The climate crisis has to extend to all ambits of the world, all sectors need to give a response to the magnitude of the challenge we face,” the political official added. “We have to teach and explain, not only the catastrophe but the opportunity to adapt society. This work of teaching and cultural change is not exclusive to administrations, all public organizations are necessary for productive change.”

Speaking at the round table were Sandra González, CaixaBank sustainability communication director, Jose María Galofre, CEO Volvo Spain, and Pablo Acevedo, Director of Operations of the Tennis Club Barcelona/Conde Godó Trophy.

The Godó tennis tournament held every spring in Barcelona, an ATP 500 tournament, was the first to declare itself smoke-free, and its director, Pablo Acevedo revealed that the organizers are in contact with outside groups to implement a plan of water and energy self-consumption. 

The Godó event already reuses water from showers to water the courts and gardens of the club grounds. 

The Barcelona tennis tournament is fully open-air and the grounds use 100% LED illumination. “We consider ourselves a tournament which wants to plan and prioritize with information, by measuring our impact,” Acevedo said. 

Sandra González celebrated that society in Spain is becoming more and more aware of environmental issues, but admitted there was still a way to go. Acevado echoed the same sentiments and lamented that as a society, we are not going far enough in the battle against the climate crisis.

Galofré, the CEO of a car manufacturer, underlined the need for everybody to take on the challenges of the climate crisis together, mentioning the fact that the world is well on course to surpass the global warming limits set out in the Paris Accords of 2015 by far. The Volvo CEO claimed that the company is “going well” towards their goal of carbon neutrality by 2040. 

He also spoke about some of the “myths” commonly found in conversations surrounding electric vehicles, underlining the point that scientific data shows that the production process and use of electric cars is far more sustainable than the production and use of carbon vehicles.