The climate researchers collected data from the first to the last match day of the 2021/22 season.

In the end it came out: The Berlin foxes had emitted 374 tons of CO2.

The majority of electricity and heat energy in the home game and training hall.

After that, the handball professionals traveled to away games plus hotel accommodation and their own vehicle fleet.

Together with the cooperation partner 1. VfL Potsdam, the foxes came up with 645 tons of CO2 in the past season - that would be 130 million CO2-filled balloons from Berlin and Potsdam rising into the sky.

These emissions were offset by afforestation in the region and in Brazil.

You can read about these figures in the Berlin sustainability report.

The Munich company Climate Partner accompanied the foxes for a year.

Thanks to the compensation, their footprint is now zero – and that should only be the beginning.

Measured, reduced and compensated will continue.

But more and more the focus should be on reduction: no more training camps in the south, but in the Spreewald.

You mean business

Converting the vehicle fleet to e-mobility – including the team bus.

Green electricity in the office, regional catering, shorter showers in the "Foxes Town" training center;

a whole package of measures in the areas of ecological, social and economic sustainability: The foxes mean business.

The Max-Schmeling-Halle already works with 100 percent green electricity.

When Bob Hanning, Stefan Kretzschmar and the new sustainability director Christopher Jahns presented the foxes in mid-August as the "first climate-neutral handball club in the world", everyone in the scene took notice.

When it comes to Hanning, the competition first thinks of good PR for themselves.

But with sustainability, the foxes have taken on a mega-topic of this time.

And, without being missionary, they want to take the league on board: "We are happy to make the foxes case available to everyone," said board member Jahns to the magazine "Handball Inside", "if you have any questions, we are also happy to offer our advice. "

Sebastian Frecke listened to the news from Berlin.

He expressly welcomes the commitment – ​​and hopes that many clubs will follow suit.

Referring to the Handball Bundesliga (HBL), the managing director of HSV Hamburg says: “Anyone who is still turning a blind eye to the topic of sustainability is acting out of touch with reality.

I believe that in the future we will have to meet license requirements in terms of sustainability.

The issue of sustainability will come even more into focus as a result of the current energy crisis.”

Frecke is currently looking for a service provider for HSV who, like the foxes, measures seasonal CO2 emissions.

That costs money - and that's scarce everywhere in handball.

Frecke says: "No manager of the Handball Bundesliga can easily say: I take 200,000 euros from the squad money for a sustainability campaign.

Everything is too tightly knitted for that.”

Even the choice of sponsors shows how ambivalent the topic can be: With Hapag-Lloyd and Eurowings, Hamburg has big sponsors from the transport sector.

Marine diesel, kerosene: You only have to name these terms to recognize the tension in which a manager like Frecke moves.

Who would say "no" to that - with all awareness of sustainability that Frecke has, who says: "I see more potential and opportunities for us in the topic".

Starting with smaller steps can be the right way - after completing the training, an employee in the office will mainly deal with the topic of sustainability.

That's quite a step for such a medium-sized club.

The courage also stems from the fact that Frecke and his office colleagues are currently giving HSV a better image - the times as a loud-mouthed club from the successful years with President Andreas Rudolph at the top are long gone.

Frecke wants a contemporary association that knows the answers to the questions of sustainability, digitization and diversity and that becomes the backdrop to many fantasies in a colorful metropolis like Hamburg.

In addition, the manager has no doubts that all competitors will benefit from pushing sustainability efforts: “Altruism is not enough to drive us.

Sustainability is a topic that attracts sponsors and viewers.”