DWARS in Debate: Sustainability through football?

“DWARSers have nothing to do with sports.” It is a common cry that paints a negative picture of our members. Perhaps there is a grain of truth in it, as we have limited ability to achieve our political goals through sports. However, sport is an important part of daily life for many. This is particularly true of football, the sport actively followed by about half the world's population. Because of this wide reach, football is ideally suited to gather many people behind a collective cause. This is precisely why it is so unfortunate that football represents many bad things. ‘Reserved and conservative’ are two words that describe football well. But suppose it were possible to bring about social and environmental change within this conservative stronghold. That the mass reach of football is harnessed to convey a message of sustainability. Is it possible to green the world through football?

Let me introduce you to Forest Green Rovers Football Club. At the time of writing, this club from Nailsworth, Gloucestershire is in the sub-top of the fourth tier of the English football pyramid, with a good chance of promotion to the third tier. It looks totally unremarkable and does not compare to the giants of English football, which can spend hundreds of millions every year. 

Nevertheless, this is still one of the most extraordinary sports clubs in the world because of the vision they unleashed on a rigid, conservative environment. From the moment in 2010 that the club, at that time still active in amateur football and on the verge of bankruptcy, was taken over by Dale Vince, sustainability became the spearhead of its operations. Vince, a former New Age hippie and owner of green energy company Ecotricity, began a new direction as the club's brand new chairman aimed at fighting climate change from within football. Eight years later, the club was awarded a ‘UN Climate Action Award’ by the United Nations for being the ‘greenest football club in the world’ to be the first to establish a carbon-neutral football organisation. To find out how a small club from a town of just 5,800 inhabitants can be so successful, we will dive into the sustainable aspects of the club and how this innovative approach is still making a big impact.

Green operations

From the self-proclaimed vision of Forest Green Rovers, three pillars for their operations emerge. The first and most high-profile of these is veganism. In fact, they are the first club in the world to be completely vegan. One of the first measures Vince implemented as chairman was to do away with red meat as part of the menu, both for supporters and players. This marked a major break with the norm. It is common for supporters to consume greasy snacks, such as burgers and sausage sandwiches, during a match. To still provide the necessary comfort food, alternatives are offered in the form of pies with meat substitutes, vegan pizza, and, of course, just fries. In fact, the success is so great that a project has started to introduce the same vegan food in school canteens in the UK. Meat was also assumed to be an important part of the diet for elite athletes, given the high amounts of protein and beneficial fats in meat. However, in consultation with club doctors, vegan food is prepared daily for the players to still allow them to perform optimally. Although the players outside the club have not all adopted the vegan lifestyle, all sporting activities around the team are entirely vegan. As a result, the entire sports organisation is outside the negative climate impact of the livestock industry. 

The club's second success story is that it is completely energy-neutral. As mentioned earlier, it is the first club in the world to be certified as completely carbon-neutral by the UN. You would say this is a foregone conclusion, with a renewable energy millionaire as its owner. Indeed, it does help that all the energy needed to keep the stadium and all the facilities around it running is generated by the chairman's wind turbines. But the club is also in the process of becoming self-sufficient, installing solar panels on the stadium roof and using geothermal energy to heat the building. It is also switching to energy-neutral alternatives on other fronts. Investments by the chairman made it possible to give the entire selection a company electric car and to install many charging stations around the stadium. The groundsman is also sustainable: a solar-powered mowing robot takes care of the turf.

Finally, Rovers are also progressive when it comes to circularity. The club aims for an absolute zero waste policy, and is already close to succeeding. Starting with their organic pitch, which is farmed organically, i.e. without pesticides and artificial growth enhancers. Instead, they use seaweed as ‘manure’. With this approach, FGR is once again the first in the world. Irrigation of the field is controlled by using natural water, such as groundwater or captured rainwater. Already 95% of the waste generated by the operation of the stadium around matches is currently recycled for new purposes, while the aim is emphatically to put all waste to new uses. To top it all off, the club is currently in an advanced stage for the construction of a new stadium. This new ‘Eco Park’ is to be the greenest stadium in the world. To ensure this, its construction will also be sustainable. For instance, it will mainly use wood as a material, and will be located in a wooded area outside home town Nailsworth. As a result, it will be built organically into the landscape, with room for more greenery and ecological integration. With these three pillars, the organisation is firmly committed to promoting sustainability on all fronts, setting a shining example for others.

Success to the outside world

Now you will think: “all nice and well, but why is this important?” What relevance does it have that a football club in particular is so sustainable, compared to other companies and organisations? Isn't it much more important that a major polluter, such as Shell, for example, shows social awareness and commitment to sustainable alternatives? 

While this would undeniably have a more positive effect in meeting climate goals, football clubs occupy a special place within the social domain. Based on World Cup viewing figures, it is estimated that 3.5 billion people worldwide are football fans. Many times, these people are also fans of a club, which they look up to and build their lives around to varying degrees. The club has a big role in the lives of supporters and thus can also have an effect on their behaviour. A study in at the European Football Association UEFA by Walters and Tacon, professors of ‘Marketing’ at Birkbeck University of London, shows that more and more clubs are becoming aware of this role and are therefore committed to a form of corporate social responsibility.  As clubs express themselves socially and sustainably, they have an effect on their fans, who are thus also more inclined to adopt this behaviour and thus become more socially and environmentally aware. Nevertheless, Rovers still stand out more for their complete commitment to sustainability. What does it mean for a club to manifest itself in this way?

It is exactly the holistic way Forest Green Rovers promotes its ideology that so appeals to the public. The club itself states that “no other football club in the world puts the environment so at the heart of everything it does, it is woven into our DNA.” This is proving to be effective. In a study on the effects of the club's approach, Anthony Samuel, professor of ‘Marketing and Innovation’ at Cardiff Business University, argues that the fact that the club is so actively engaged with its principles has an effect on visitors and others who interact with the club. Everything the club does revolves around social and environmental sustainability, and in this it is ahead of social developments that will become necessary in the future. By being aware of the exemplary role a football club can play and proactively responding to this, the Green Devils can make a real impact on visitors to the club. By introducing people to sustainable initiatives and veganism through accessible football, they are more open to it and therefore the transition is easier. Through social media, radio and television, people outside the stadium can also be reached with the message of sustainability. In this way, with effect, Forest Green Rovers FC is trying to be a shining example within the football world.

However, a few caveats should be added to the picture painted. For instance, the club's success cannot be separated from owner Vince and his energy millions. Had he not taken over the club when it needed him, the switch to sustainability would probably never have been made. The speed of the transition was also higher because Vince has a lot of financial resources, a luxury others may not always have. In addition, the scale at which Forest Green Rovers operates is also not extremely representative. In a semi-professional league where the level of football sometimes leaves much to be desired, it is easier to be successful than in the world of big football money. On the other hand, this makes it all the more impressive that the club is already making such an impression, on and off the pitch. If they climb the league tables and football ladders, the club's reach will only grow, and with it, hopefully, its influence on the sustainability of supporters' and other clubs' lifestyles. 

To a better future?

The only question is to what extent Forest Green Rovers' policy will have an effect on the (football) world. While it knows how to touch its supporters and inspire other clubs to innovate their stadiums and operations, the club still seems too small in scale to actually convert half the world's population into the vegan Gütmenschen we are at DWARS. Indeed, the reality is that football is incredibly environmentally unfriendly. From the oil used to produce the jerseys and the ball, to the distant air journeys made to play international matches or major tournaments, almost every aspect to the sport is polluting. Through measurements taken during matches, it is estimated that the carbon footprint of a match in a stadium is eight times larger than if supporters stayed at home. This is mainly caused by travelling to the match, the food and drink they consume there, and the waste they produce with it. So the Greens' initiatives during their own home games ensure that this footprint remains much smaller or even zero. However, these are only 23 out of a total of 2036 professional league matches played in England alone. So without including national and European cup matches as well as leagues around the world, the total effect is just a drop in the ocean. 

However, there is hope on the horizon. More and more clubs are starting to recognise the importance of sustainability. For instance, more and more clubs in the Premier League, the highest division in English football, are starting projects to make their stadium more sustainable or to recycle as much of their waste products as possible. Forest Green Rovers' role in this is also emerging. Increasingly, other teams are approaching the club to inquire about how they can also make their stadium more sustainable, while opponents sometimes offer vegan options for supporters when the Green Army visits. In a world where image and charisma are increasingly important, and political themes permeate every fibre, football clubs cannot be left behind either. Unfortunately, the biggest polluting problem within sport, namely travel, can  not be solved by individual clubs. Although there have been initiatives to offset emissions from travelling players and supporters by planting trees, this proved too unsuccessful to make a significant contribution. Top-down regulations and measures are needed, so it is up to the umbrella football associations at various levels to respond. So the light at the end of the tunnel is beginning to show, although there is still much work to be done.

The point, therefore, is not the scale at which sustainability is happening within football, but precisely that it is happening. In an environment where profit and success seem to be the most important thing, and where in the pursuit of this there is an awful lot of flying in order to tap new markets, it is incredibly important to see a club manage to actively pierce through this. By no means all reactions to the policy have been positive, and media coverage of the club ranges from genuinely interested to smiling and cynical, but the important thing is that attention is being paid to it. Because it is special: a football club that is fully committed to sustainability and is also successful at it, both on and off the pitch. It is pie in the sky to predict what effect Rovers will have on the football landscape and beyond in the future, but it is interesting and exciting to follow what heights ‘the greenest club in the world’ can rise to.

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