The appropriately named Forest Green Rovers are looking to become the world’s most eco-friendly football club with the implementation of a number of radical initiatives at the club. The Conference League side based in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire recently launched Britain’s first ever meat-free and environmentally sustainable menu for fans at the stadium. The menu features locally sourced, predominantly vegetarian eco-food in accordance with Soil Association’s gold standard catering mark.
Previously the club introduced a red meat-free diet as part of the players’ fitness regime, which was extended across the stadium with club chairman and old eco-activist Dale Vince adamant “if red meat was not good enough to feed our players, then it wasn’t good enough for our staff, fans and visitors too”.
Despite taking meat off the menu it seems the players and the fans have taken to the idea of a healthy match alternative.
But this is just the latest in a long line of environmental projects at Rovers for greater sustainability off as well as on the field. The club is in the process of installing solar panels on the roof of the stadium as part of a green energy scheme that will provide 10% of electricity used throughout the ground. There are also plans to install low energy floodlights, an electric lawn mower for the pitch and an electric minibus for the team.
They also want the pitch to be certified organic; the first time a football pitch has been given such an accolade, and are using local cow manure as fertiliser for the job.
The inspiration and motivating force behind the changes is club chairman Dale Vince. Sustainability in Sport, which was launched by Vince and ex-Manchester United mainstay Gary Neville last year is a not-for-profit foundation which aims to help sporting clubs and organisations in the UK to lower their carbon footprints. Forest Green Rovers is seen as a testing ground for the future of eco-friendly football which could be promoted throughout the leagues.
Vince comes from a radical environmental tradition. He was part of the peace convoy that occupied nuclear missile bases in the 1980s and the new age traveller eco-activist scene, present at the infamous Battle of the Beanfield at Stonehenge when the police rioted attacking travellers’ convoys seriously injuring many.
He went on to found Ecotricity, an energy company specialising in generating and supplying wind power and renewable energy from wind turbines which now supplies 40,000 homes with cheap, green electricity.
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This article appeared in the February issue of Freedom newspaper see here
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