Proud sponsors of… a football club?!

It might surprise you that we’ve been sponsoring a football club for three years now. Why? Because the one we sponsor, Forest Green Rovers, is top of the league (of sustainability)!

They also happen to be top of League Two at the moment. And of course we hope they get promoted to even greater heights — but what we love most about them is the message they promote.

We might not be your usual football crowd, but FGR aren’t your usual football club either. They’re the world’s first UN certified carbon neutral football club. They’re vegan. The club is powered entirely by renewables and they’ve pledged to hit net zero carbon emissions ten years ahead of the 2050 Paris climate agreement deadline.

So if that’s not worth cheering, what is?

The picture above is a mural painted for us by the gifted Abi Everett. It’s in the main concourse at FGR’s ground and it reads: When nature wins, we all win.

Competition can be good — in sport, in business and in sustainability — especially when what underpins it is the ambition to do better by everyone.

And we see that in action right now. In the fullness of time, it won’t matter who cut emissions most, who did most for biodiversity or who solved the plastic problem. But right now, we should all be pushing each other to do as much as we possibly can.

And judging by the impact on sustainability FGR are having not only in football but in sport, they’re destined to be champions.