An old T-shirt can still have a place on matchday. Tokyo Verdy’s TOKYO♡GREEN DAY programme invites supporters to bring one they no longer wear and turn it into a bag, using scissors rather than a needle and thread. The invitation leaves room for a shirt from any part of someone’s life, not just the club shop. It is a small, approachable way to think about keeping something useful.
That attention to familiar things runs through TOKYO♡GREEN, the sustainability initiative Verdy launched in 2024. A journey to the stadium, clothes waiting to be cleared out, a child’s afternoon of making things: each offers a way to take part. For a football club whose name and colour are rooted in green, these activities give supporters another way to express their connection to the club.
The programme spans environmental footprint reduction, greening, education, inclusion and well-being. This introduction follows its environmental activities, where Verdy and its partners are finding practical ways to bring sustainability into the routines around football. The club’s overview sets out the wider ambition.
The journey is part of the day
Verdy’s Green Route Challenge begins before supporters reach the turnstiles. Introduced for home league games from 29 August 2026, it offers a limited-edition sticker to the first 100 participants at each match who share an eligible journey on X and show the post at the stadium.
The qualifying routes are specific: walking all the way from home, cycling all the way, or travelling by car with at least three people sharing the ride. Different stickers recognise the different journeys. Public transport is encouraged separately in the club’s Fan Policy, but is not listed among the challenge’s sticker-qualifying options.
It is an invitation people can recognise in their own plans for a match. Supporters who can walk or cycle may choose to make that trip part of the occasion; people travelling by car can arrange to go together. Sharing the journey also makes a usually private choice visible within the supporter community. That is a useful role for a club: giving an everyday decision a social connection.
Clothes with somewhere else to go
The GREEN RELAY PROJECT brings another everyday decision to the ground. Verdy collects unwanted clothing with corporate partner Chori, using the company’s B-LOOP textile recycling scheme to connect collection with sorting and reprocessing. The project is designed to turn collected material into new supporter goods and other products.
There is already a record of supporters taking part. In its December 2025 account, Chori reported that the project had collected approximately 585kg of clothing across that season. The total included matchday collections and a permanent collection box at the clubhouse, with players also contributing. Chori said the material was to be sorted and reprocessed for supporter goods in the following season.
A clubhouse collection point is a thoughtful addition. It gives the activity a place in the club’s working week as well as its match calendar. The practical work continues beyond handing over a bag: B-LOOP coordinates handling, transport and recycled products with partner companies, as Chori’s explanation of the scheme describes.
For clubs elsewhere, the partnership is worth understanding. A stadium offers a familiar meeting place and a reason to bring clothes along; the textile partner supplies the route for what happens afterwards. The reported weight tells us how much was collected. It should be read as a collection figure, rather than a measure of carbon savings or the amount of finished merchandise.
Something to make and take home
The TOKYO♡GREEN DAY scheduled for 11 October 2026 at Ajinomoto Stadium brings several of these activities together. Alongside clothing collection and the T-shirt-to-bag workshop, the programme includes wooden crafts and a workshop using SORAKASA KIT to assemble an umbrella whose fabric incorporates recycled Ziploc material.
The umbrella workshop is supported by Asahi Kasei Home Products. Its recycling programme developed the kit with umbrella company Ca Et La so that participants could encounter the idea of material circulation by assembling something they can use. In the football setting, that offers families an activity to share before the match.
On the same day, the announced clean-up activity includes routes between Ajinomoto Stadium and nearby AGF Field, where Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza are scheduled to play. The women’s team already carries out hometown clean-ups through the year. Linking the two venues gives that continuing work a place in a shared football afternoon.
These are planned activities, with details subject to change. Their appeal is in the invitation itself: bring something, make something, or help care for the place around the ground. A useful object to take home can give the subject a life beyond the event.
Giving the work a home in the club
There is also an organisational side to the initiative. On 22 May 2026, Verdy published its first Sustainability Report, covering 2025, alongside an ESG Policy and a Fan Policy. The documents were prepared using the J.League sustainability activities grant funded by The Nippon Foundation. They give the club and its supporters a shared reference for work that reaches beyond an individual event.
The Fan Policy is framed as recommendations and an invitation to contribute. Its scope includes Verdy and Beleza home games and official away games. Alongside travel, it encourages reducing waste, reuse and repair, respect for other supporters and care for the local environment. The language leaves space for people to contribute according to their circumstances.
Verdy has also announced work with Milan-based RIGHT HUB on a sustainability management framework for Tokyo Verdy, Inc.’s activities, aligned with the principles and requirements of ISO 20121:2024. Bringing this work into club operations can help give the public-facing activities continuity.
An international connection has already produced a shared activity. In March 2025, visiting staff from Real Betis joined Verdy in holding a sustainability awareness workshop at Ajinomoto Stadium. The clubs’ visit report documents that encounter, and their July 2025 partnership renewal includes collaboration between Betis’s Forever Green and TOKYO♡GREEN.
What can football learn from this Japanese example? One promising idea is to make participation feel familiar. People already have a relationship with their club, plans for getting to a match and belongings they care about. Verdy’s activities meet them there, with partners who can help carry the work forward. There is room for that connection to grow, through repeated invitations and the pleasure of doing something useful together.
This article is based on published club and partner documents checked on 8 October 2026. The 11 October activities are described as scheduled, rather than as a report from the event.
Featured image: AI-generated conceptual editorial illustration with the official FootballGravity logo added separately. It depicts no actual stadium, event or participant.
Part of Football in Japan — What can football learn from Japan?