Canada Women’s Soccer captain Jessie Fleming continues to lead from the front on climate action. The Portland Thorns midfielder has decided to compensate the social cost of carbon associated with her 2023/24 season, including travel emissions and her transfer from Chelsea FC in London to Portland.

Fleming is donating the money to Zero Foodprint, “a community regenerative farming initiative that supports farmers to build healthy soil and put carbon back into the ground.” The non-profit operates in California, Colorado, and Oregon and is looking to restore climate by changing the way food is grown in a process they call “collective regeneration.”

At just 26 years old, Fleming has already won an Olympic gold medal (Tokyo 2020), is the three-time reigning Canada Women’s Player of the Year, and is a four-time Women’s Super League (WSL) champion. She could easily continue her playing career with a singular focus on becoming (one of) the greatest Canadian(s) ever to play soccer. Instead, Fleming is part of an increasing number of athletes who successfully marry their sporting ambition with concern about climate change.

Ahead of last summer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup, Fleming was a leading member of soccer’s biggest-ever climate campaign. With the help of Football For Future (FFF) and Common Goal, Fleming, Danish midfielder Sofie Junge Pedersen, Italian center-back Elena Linari, and 41 other female players compensated for their World Cup-related travel emissions by donating the equivalent cost to a combination of adaptation initiatives, carbon offsetting projects, and climate resilience programs.

Now, Fleming becomes the first player in history to use FFF and Common Goal’s new Carbon Transfer Compass, “a methodology which allows football players, individuals and organisations to take responsibility for the environmental cost of their emissions by donating to climate initiatives to build a more environmentally sustainable culture in football.”

At the time of writing, Fleming is poised to donate between $595 and $717 to Zero Foodprint, depending on how the rest of the Thorns’ season plays out. To calculate the size of her donation, the Carbon Transfer Compass assesses the environmental impact of Fleming’s travel and multiplies that number by the U.S. Government’s social cost of carbon price, which was $51/ton in June 2023. Unlike traditional carbon offsetting, this methodology does not rely on the purchase or sale of carbon credits.

Fleming, FFF, and Common Goal say they understand that donations to climate resilience programs and adaptation initiatives are not the wholesale solutions needed to solve the climate crisis, but rather short-term fixes that can be employed by players and organizations to combat their emissions.

Unfortunately, as it currently stands, the international soccer calendar and most prominent leagues are structured in a way that requires consistent air travel, the highest emitting form of travel. This is one of the areas where Fleming would like to see change. Speaking to me via Zoom, she said, “I think you definitely have to acknowledge the amount of travel going on in football.” She added that she would like to see organizations like the NWSL and FIFA “put more thought into how teams travel,” and noted that when awarding tournament bids, how much travel is required, and the number of countries involved should be looked at.

Barney Weston, Co-Director of Football For Future, feels similarly. He stated, “There’s currently no sustainable solution for the environmental cost of air travel. Football organisations need to acknowledge the impact that their flights (both domestic and international) have on the natural world and introduce carbon considerations into their travel policies. The Carbon Transfer Compass takes us one step closer to football supporting the environment it operates in. Having players like Jessie on board proves the importance of providing a methodology which effectively addresses the high amount of travel-related carbon emissions in the game. Players want to engage with the pressing issues of today and use their platform to impact the world.”

Fleming admits there are many different ways that athletes can help combat climate change, and is a firm believer in small collective action, with each person doing/giving what they can.

She credits her interest in climate change and biodiversity issues to her childhood and her education. Fleming “grew up in a family where a lot of things were homemade.” When she got to UCLA, she was a star on the field, but during her studies, stumbled across some regenerative agriculture courses and “turned that into a minor in environmental science.”

Fleming immersed herself in the world of climate change and biodiversity, reading Dan Barber’s work on regenerative agriculture and reshaping the food system. But it wasn’t until she graduated and moved to Chelsea FC that she began putting her interest to work.

While she was busy helping her team win four consecutive WSL championships, Fleming was introduced to Common Goal and later FFF by some of her teammates. In these organizations, she found like-minded players who were interested in having an impact off the field. This snowballed into the idea of creating a standard where players regularly take responsibility for their travel, which eventually led to the Women’s World Cup campaign she spearheaded alongside Sofie Junge Pedersen.

Fleming would like to see these smaller actions become more commonplace and insists that her donations will not be a one-off. She also notes that since joining Chelsea in 2020 she has seen more action happening, and says she was able to speak openly with her teammates at Chelsea about her concern for the environment. Likewise, other players around the world are openly campaigning around their concerns for social issues, such as mental health or LGBTQ+ welfare.

For Fleming, the key is to “share your passion,” but never make people feel guilty or pressured, which she insists leads to resistance and hurts the cause. Moreover, she notes that others will be inspired when they see their colleagues showing the courage of their convictions. She hopes this will drive others to join the fight and take responsibility for their emissions.

Her donation to Zero Foodprint stems from her commitment to combating climate change and her interest in localized, collective solutions. Fleming wanted to make sure her donation would be effective and was “keen to have an organization that was local,” where she could meet the people behind the scenes. Fleming says she will be visiting Zero Foodprint’s Oregon headquarters once her season is over to see firsthand how they are helping farmers cultivate healthy and biodiverse soil that can sequester carbon and feed plant life.

Zero Foodprint is thrilled with the Portland Thorns midfielder’s donation and had the following to say:

“Zero Foodprint is grateful and energized by Ms. Fleming’s recent contributions to our Restore Grants! As a non-profit that works to combat climate change through farming, Zero Foodprint relies on the bold actions of people who grow food, people who cook food, and most importantly, everyone who eats food. Jessie’s donation will be pooled with contributions from our Zero Foodprint Business Members and monthly donors to help make ZFP Restore Grants available to farmers in the Pacific Northwest.

Zero Foodprint’s Grants give farmers access to the funding needed to implement regenerative farming practices that sequester carbon and build healthy soil. By contributing to these grants, Ms. Fleming is setting the bar for leaders across industries, especially those in professional sports, to take bold climate action that grows better food, supports thriving farms, and restores the climate.”

Jessie Fleming’s actions show the value in one person’s commitment and outspokenness for a cause. Alone her donation to Zero Foodprint will not change the way food is grown, nor will it reduce a meaningful percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but as Olympic athletes suffer from severe heat waves in Paris, and much of North America continues to reel from higher than average summer temperatures, her gesture is a guiding light for those who need inspiration, and it is a symbol of courage to those who shirk their responsibilities.