Being cited as an example hasn’t happened to the Girondins de Bordeaux for a long time. But at the start of the season, it’s not just on the pitch that everything is going well. The club has offered itself a nice spotlight in recent days by rallying Paris by train last weekend for its match against Paris FC while PSG has been under fire from critics since its trip by private plane. in Nantes, not to mention the media release of Christophe Galtier and Kylian Mbappé on the subject.
In reality, the Girondins de Bordeaux want to be at the forefront on the subject of energy sobriety. They have already carried out several actions in recent months on this subject. They have also been calculating their own carbon footprint for two years. This Tuesday, Thomas Jacquemier, the general manager of the club returned to the subject for France Bleu Gironde.
How do you adapt to the transport of club teams?
We are fully aware that the players’ air travel is not ideal! First from an ecological point of view, it’s not terrible at all! Then, it’s not a very good idea from an economic and financial point of view. So, even if we are a little landlocked compared to the rest of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, we try as soon as possible to take the train like last weekend to go to Paris or the bus. After the bus, it must not last too long because it can be a bad idea at the athletic level for the players. The advantage of the train in particular is that it goes quite quickly and that the players can easily move around. So it’s pretty healthy. In the end, we try to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible.
Besides, for the moment, have you only taken the plane once this season to go to Grenoble?
Precisely, Grenoble is the typical example where at some point if you want to have a decent travel time for the organisms to digest the trip, the plane unfortunately remains the most interesting way to limit fatigue. There, you can’t do much better than that. On the other hand, I repeat it as soon as we can, we use the train or the bus.
Have you set things up for the home games as well?
In fact, we are working on a total of around thirty subjects in relation to our carbon footprint. Contrary to what one might think, it is not the travel of the teams that costs in terms of carbon but that of the supporters to the stadium because there is necessarily a lot of travel by car. In a way, we have an indirect responsibility in this regard. That’s why we promote carpooling and all other solutions (the club has experimented with setting up a bus network for supporters on match days) to reduce the carbon footprint.
For you, the club have a responsibility on this subject of energy sobriety?
Yes 100%! We have a real responsibility towards the public to show that it is a regular or even permanent concern for us and not just to give ourselves a good image. I think that the notion of effort, especially in high-level sport, also involves the effort not to consume your energy badly. I think we have a real responsibility, even a leadership to show on the subject.
Some point to possible organizational problems with the SNCF, has this been your case?
No no not at all ! On the contrary, we must salute the work of the SNCF on this. For once, they are quite driving. It’s not just about dedicating a train to us and arriving on time, they also know that we need simplified and secure transfers. With us, they were very good on this issue. It went very well and we will continue to take the train.