Industries in Depth

Introducing the ‘world's greenest football club’ - and their new kit made from coffee beans

Soccer Football - League Two - Exeter City v Forest Green Rovers - St James Park, Exeter, Britain - October 12, 2019  Exeter City's Aaron Martin in action with Forest Green Rovers' Matty Stevens  Action Images/Adam Holt  EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications.  Please contact your account representative for further details. - RC16AB92B8A0

Tackling the climate crisis? Image: Action Images via Reuters

Martyn Herman
Journalist, Reuters
  • An English soccer club are trialling a kit made from recycled coffee bean waste.
  • Forest Green Rovers are owned by ‘green energy’ entrepreneur Dale Vince who has put sustainability at the heart of the club’s ethos.
  • The club is fully powered by renewables, all match-day food is vegan, the pitch is organic and maintained by electric mowers and recycled water.
  • FIFA has recognised them as “world’s greenest football club”.

Already in a league of their own when it comes to sustainability in sport, innovative English soccer club Forest Green Rovers are trialling a kit made from coffee bean waste.

Rovers, owned by ‘green energy’ entrepreneur Dale Vince, road-tested the prototype in their League Two clash against against Colchester United.

Have you read?

The club in leafy Gloucestershire has used a strip made from bamboo for two years, but the brains at kit partner PlayerLayer believe they have found a better alternative.

“We have been working with PlayerLayer looking for more sustainable materials for shirts after I learned that the default for modern sports kit had become 100% plastic which didn’t make much sense to me from an environment perspective or a performance perspective,” Vince told Reuters on Wednesday.

“We came up with bamboo and since them we have been looking for more sustainable versions and they came up with coffee a few months ago.”

Rovers are recognised by FIFA as the “world’s greenest football club” with Vince, a champion for the United Nations Sports for Climate Action initiative, hoping that more clubs will move towards greater sustainability.

Since becoming chairman in 2011, Vince has put sustainability at the heart of the club’s ethos. All the match-day food is vegan, the pitch at their Innocent New Lawn ground is organic and mowed by electric mowers and irrigated with recycled water, and the club is powered 100% by renewables.

An electric team bus is in the pipline too while Vince’s “monster project” is an eco-friendly all wooden stadium.

Playing in shirts consisting of three cups of bean waste and five plastic bottles, Vince says, could give Forest Green’s players a competitive edge as lab tests have shown them to be lighter and more breathable.

And he says it will also raise awareness of the waste in the clothing industry.

“These shirts are more sustainable because while bamboo is renewable and you can grow more, coffee is a waste product and the shirts will be completely recycled,” Vince said.

“We have to improve the ethics of clothing manufacture and the sustainability of the materials, and we have to use less, so we are only changing one of our three kits each year.”

While the football industry is not known for its focus on sustainability, things are changing with both Arsenal and Southampton praised for their efforts to combat climate change.

Some players such as former Manchester United defender Chris Smalling, who has invested in ethical alternatives to leather, and Arsenal defender Hector Bellerin, who is involved with a tree-planting project, have also taken on the green message.

“I think in football we are seeing some great examples of players stepping up and using their platform,” Vince said. “Players have a great ability to influence people.

“There is an enormous opportunity that sport has and a bigger responsibility because people look up to sporting icons and take their lead from them.”

Loading...
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

United Kingdom

Related topics:
Industries in DepthClimate Action
Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how United Kingdom is affecting economies, industries and global issues
World Economic Forum logo

Forum Stories newsletter

Bringing you weekly curated insights and analysis on the global issues that matter.

Subscribe today

3 ways travel can shape the future of global connectivity

Jane Sun

December 18, 2024

Reimagining Real Estate: A Framework for the Future

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum