“Major football clubs are in the spotlight and are increasingly being called upon by society to act sustainably and take measures that keep professional sport sustainable in the long term. TSG Hoffenheim Fußball-Spielbetriebs GmbH established the future strategy ‘TSG is movement’ in 2018 and are aiming to use it to rethink football. That means: TSG Hoffenheim’s DNA includes not only a pledge to high-performance sport and innovation, but also a commitment to social responsibility,” read the in-depth justification of TSG’s inclusion in the final round from the jury.
It continued: “This is reflected in the club’s five fields of action: innovation, staff, players, youth and fans, ecology and Africa. The focus is on development in accordance with societal interests. By changing the business models, they are implicitly creating a shared value for TSG, their partners and society: a holistic education for young people, scientific involvement in the form of the non-profit TSG Research Lab, the PreZero Arena as a ‘Zero Waste Stadium’ and the ‘Race to Zero’, the sustainable African textile brand ‘umoja’, the corona support fund ‘TSG hilft’ for clubs in the region or the climate ticket. Through the ‘Common Value Club Alliance’, they integrate social perspectives into concrete projects and place them at the centre of the ‘Common Value’ marketing approach.”
“We’re trying to ‘rethink football’ and are particularly pleased that in a category with many other exciting nominees, we were able to convince the jury with our holistic ‘Common Value Approach’ towards achieving lasting change in the business model of professional football,” said Prof. Dr. Jan Mayer, who is responsible for corporate development at TSG Hoffenheim, among other things, in his role as managing director.
But it is not only TSG that have been nominated for the German Sustainability Award – Hoffenheim’s long-standing and excellent partner, PreZero, has also reached the final round of the “Sports Venues” category. “The fact that our partner PreZero has also made it to the final with the zero-waste project, which is a shared pillar of our future strategy ‘TSG is movement’, doubly encourages us in our approach,” added Denni Strich, the managing director who responsible for sales and marketing.
The renowned German Sustainability Award has been honouring pioneers in the categories of companies, architecture and start-ups since 2008, and is now doing so in the field of sport for the first time too. The respective winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in Düsseldorf on 24 November.