Dale Vince is used to succeeding when others assume he will fail. He left school at 15, much to the chagrin of his parents who believed he should get a steady job, and has since amassed a fortune of a reported £100m. He had the idea to construct his own wind turbine in 1991; 30 years later his business Ecotricity, the world’s first green electricity company, employs around 850 people.
And in 2010, Vince saved Forest Green Rovers from probable financial apocalypse with a dream to make them the first carbon-neutral club in the world. Within eight years, a club from a village of 6,000 people had been recognised as “the greenest football club on the globe” by the United Nations and Fifa. So yes, Dale Vince tends to get what he wants. Because Dale Vince tends to make it happen himself.
For a while, Forest Green Rovers were treated as something of a novelty. Nobody doubted Vince’s commitment to climate action, but their initiatives were all reported with a slight tinge of derision: the pitch constructed of recycled coffee beans, the vegan menu that supporters initially railed against but now love, the home shirt made using waste coffee grounds and recycled water bottles. They were an interesting story, but only an interesting story. Above them, real football was happening.
That perception has evaporated, partly because football has finally woken up to its responsibility to act in the face of the climate emergency and begun to incrementally follow Forest Green’s lead. But also because this forward-thinking club now has a team created in the same image and is pushing for its highest ever finish. They currently sit top of League Two, seven points clear of the playoff positions with a game in hand.
“There’s no doubt that the better the club performs, the more powerful the message on climate action it stands for can become,” Vince tells i. “We have to be good at both things, and so we give them equal importance. Sustainability and football are like the two legs that we walk on; if either of them are substandard then we limp.
“Because we are a football club first and foremost for most of our supporters, success on the pitch helps remove all doubt that eco-sustainability and football can work together. It strengthens that message, because people used to say that it couldn’t work. If we were in a relegation battle now, people might say ‘But what about the football?’. Now they see them in symbiosis.”
This is a romantic concept, that a club’s ethos in campaigning for a green revolution might actually have helped them perform better on the pitch. But it stands up to scrutiny. At League Two level, far more than in the Premier League, there exists a close connection between all strands of a club – players, managers, supporters, owners, staff – because there are fewer barriers between them.
That only makes the culture of the club more influential. Vince mentions a number of recent interviews in which the club’s players have been asked about the experience of playing for a unique club, and he sees in their answers a genuine buy-in for what the club stands for.
That becomes self-fulfilling: the club has a definite ethos, the players understand that ethos and so know what to expect, all of them are on the same page which allows for greater communication and communal spirit. Ask any manager and they will tell you that a steady club off the pitch makes life far easier for them when dictating what happens on it.
Other multimillionaire owners in the EFL may have spent more haphazardly to accelerate their clubs’ progress through the divisions. They could have been in the Championship by now. But again, Vince believes in a different way. He has been at Forest Green for over 10 years and has appointed only three managers. Sustainability isn’t simply about environmental campaigning; it underpins everything at this club.
“We have an approach to sustainability as a bigger concept,” Vince says. “It’s not just about eco stuff. It’s about the ability to continue to do the same processes year in, year out, which is the proper definition of sustainability. You bring finances, football durability and the environment all under that remit.
“And you get unexpected benefits from taking our stance, not just in terms of the environmental work but from the ethics and equality of our decision-making. The best recent example of that was recruiting Rob Edwards as the new head coach, who was a coach at the Football Association. I don’t think Rob would have left the FA for any other League Two club. I know for a fact that he looked at the club and believed that the one thing he would always get was support.
“Karma is a commonly used term and it can sound a bit hippie or spiritual, but we have a clear ethos about treating people as you want to be treated yourself, with openness and honesty, admitting mistakes and fixing them. Doing that creates enduring friendships. Suddenly people will help you as and when you need it. And the local community invests more of themselves in the club because they see us doing good things with good people.”
Vince’s determination has made a difference to global sport. He helped to establish the agenda for climate action from within the game and believes that elite clubs are now accepting that behavioural change is overdue and urgent. He understands that such change will happen incrementally but is adamant that only a total commitment can work. Later in our interview he comes back to an earlier question to clarify: “I’d really like it if another club dived in like we did.” So far, none have. He insists that we need more rebels and activists.
And so the fight continues: for a safer planet, for a sustainable future and for a football club that aims to incrementally, but unwaveringly, improve. In that context, football can seem a little incongruous, even meaningless, in comparison with the greatest emergency of our age. But that misses the point. For Vince, Forest Green Rovers are a vehicle to greater awareness and a poster club where substantive action dances hand-in-hand with on-pitch success.
“Our overall aim has always been to get to the Championship,” Vince says. “We have got three stars on the backs of our shirts. One of them was coloured in when we reached League Two; the other two are blank and we hope to colour them in in the future. As long as we get there in the right way, incrementally rather than boom and bust, I don’t care how long it takes.”
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3d8OzBX
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