The end of April signifies a lot of things like the real emergence of spring and the end of the football season so it was that Roger found himself on a train journey from Kent to Stroud in Gloucestershire, heading to the New Lawn home of Forest Green Rovers FC in the tiny, hill top village of Nailsworth….if Carlsberg did football etc etc
What has this got to do with sustainability and the EBN you ask?
Well, apart from watching FGR (sadly) play their last game in the EFL for a while (they have been relegated) against one of the football league founding clubs, Notts County, we were all there to join in the Sustainability and Tech fest hosted by Green Britain, owner of the football club through CEO Dale Vince, and tech business Sumillion (sumillion.com).
FGR is the UK’s only vegan football club and the food was as fantastic as the environmental story of the club and stadium was fascinating. The club will be uprooting to a brand new wooden stadium on junction 13 of the M5 and the story behind the Eco Park is well worth a read ( https://www.fgr.co.uk/eco-park).
As FGR claim “As the world’s greenest football club, we are planning to build the world’s greenest stadium. What better way to raise the profile of sustainability in sport?”
This is a crucial point outside of the football aspect. Sustainability is synonymous with FGR and the movement needs the club to get back into the football league and ultimately it would be brilliant if they could ever get to the Premier Legue.
Relegated they may well be, but they finished the season on a high by beating Notts County 1-0, sending their faithful fans home happy.