Forest Green Rovers FC are doing impressively in Football League Two, but their achievements off the pitch are leaving an even bigger mark. The club’s environmental objectives\u00a0have been attracting attention around the world and it has already set some amazing accomplishments. LWOF’s Hristo Andreev talks to\u00a0Forest Green Rovers Ambassador Helen Taylor about the team and its green transformation and goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel really at home at The New Lawn but it isn\u2019t really suitable for us as we grow as a club. The stadium is in the middle of the countryside, so transport can be an issue and there\u2019s very limited space for car parking around the ground.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re an ambitious club and are planning to be in The Championship in the next five years, so need a stadium to match those plans and that\u2019s exactly what we\u2019ll have at Eco Park. The new stadium will be the greenest in the world and will be entirely made of wood, which is a very sustainable building material.\u201d<\/p>\n 2) You\u2019re now continuing your unbeaten run, what are your goals and aims for the season? \u201cOur first season in the Football League last season was a tough one and we flirted with relegation for much of the season, so this year we\u2019re looking to stabilise in the division and potentially push towards the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n 3) You\u2019ve become 100% vegan as a club; what does the players\u2019 diet feature and how does it affect them on and off the pitch? \u201cThe players have a healthy, plant-based diet, which mainly consists of pasta, rice, vegetables and pulses. They all really enjoy the food, in fact we\u2019ve had four players become vegan when playing for the club as there are big performance and recovery benefits. Lots of the world\u2019s top athletes, including Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic, Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Aguero, follow a vegan diet for the same reason.\u201d<\/p>\n 4) Is there something unusual about your training routine and are there any different, unique training methods? \u201cWe like to play football in the right way \u2013 keeping the ball on the deck and playing a passing game, so we train a lot with the ball to develop that style. We also take quite a technical approach and use GPS and heart-rate monitors to analyse our players in every match and training session to try and optimise their performance.\u201d<\/p>\n 5) How and why did you become the world\u2019s first certified carbon neutral club? \u201cWe became carbon neutral this summer after signing up to the UN\u2019s Carbon Neutral Now campaign. We\u2019re the world\u2019s greenest football club and present a vision for how we can all live a more sustainable life with regards to energy, transport and food, so becoming carbon neutral was an obvious next step for us.\u201d<\/p>\n 6) Tell us a bit more about your special lawn mower. \u201cThe ETMow, or MowBot as we call it, is a solar-powered robot lawnmower. It\u2019s fitted with GPS so it knows the dimensions of the pitch and can cut it for two hours without needing our groundsman. After two hours it will plug into a charger, which is powered by solar panels on the roof of the stadium, give the battery a boost and then go back out again to carry on cutting. If it ever gets a fault then it will text our groundsman to let him know!\u201d<\/p>\n 7) As well as the players being vegan, you also offer vegan food to fans. Is there a big interest? \u201cOur food sales have quadrupled since our chairman, Dale, became involved with the club, so the feedback has been really positive. We introduced the change over time \u2013 initially removing red meat, before removing white meat, then fish and finally milk to become vegan a couple of years ago. The food is really popular \u2013 we even have fans coming to games especially to try it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re now also branching into school food as well with our new Little Green Devils range, which is a selection of healthy vegan products that will be sold in schools up and down the country.\u201d<\/p>\n 8) Have you been contacted by other clubs who want to follow your green approach? \u201cYes, we\u2019ve had quite a few clubs reach out to us to discuss our work and a couple have put on special vegan menus when we play against them away from home. But it\u2019s not just football clubs that are interested in our work \u2013 the UN, Wembley, Sky Sports and many other organisations have been in touch to find out more about our work.\u201d<\/p>\n 9) There was big public outburst when you revealed your new kits with the three stars, two of them being greyed-out until promotion. What is your response? \u201cWe\u2019re an ambitious club, so the stars are a statement of intent. They definitely made for a fun few days in the office!\u201d<\/p>\n 10) How do supporters from before the big green transformation react to the changes now? \u201cOur fans are really enjoying the journey that we\u2019re on as a club \u2013 both on the pitch and off it.\u201d<\/p>\n 11) Another record waiting to be broken is that Forest Green can be the smallest club to ever be promoted to English Football League One, located in a village with about 5000 inhabitants. So tell us more about this village. \u201cNailsworth is a beautiful little place with some great shops and cafes. It\u2019s not the sort of place that you would expect a Football League club to call home.\u201d<\/p>\n Main Photo<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n1) You already have a great, environmentally friendly stadium by the name of The New Lawn, so why are you planning to build Eco Park and what will be so special about it?<\/strong><\/p>\n
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