GreenSportsBlog has written often about Forest Green Rovers F.C., which plays in the fourth tier of English football/soccer.

But the “Greenest Team in Sports” is not the only mid-lower tier club to build sustainability into its DNA. Dartford F.C., which currently plays in England’s sixth tier, has also made a significant greening commitment. Adidas has increased its use of green bonds.  And the Gran Premio di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini motorcycle race gives sustainability a high profile.

All in a post Labor Day GSB News & Notes.

DARTFORD F.C. GIVES FOREST GREEN ROVERS COMPETITION IN ENGLISH FOOTBALL SUSTAINABILITY GAME

Starting out in 1888, the Dartford Football Club in Kent, located 18 miles southeast of London, was formed by members of a local workingmen’s club. The club has always toiled in the middle-lower rungs of the English football pyramid, most often being situated between the fifth and eighth tiers.

The club ran into serious financial difficulties 1992, forcing it to leave its venerable Watling Street ground. Over the next 14 years, the club became a nomad, moving from stadium to stadium until a new injection of funding and a commitment to build a permanent home venue arrived from owners Steve Irving and Dave Skinner. They also determined that the stadium would be on the cutting edge from an environmental point of view.

Dartford F.C.’s 4,097 seat Princes Park, which opened in 2006, became the UK’s first sustainable, purpose-built small-sized stadium. It:

• Is within walking distance of the city centre, which reduces vehicular traffic as compared to other like sized stadiums that are often sited on the perimeter of a city or town
• Boasts on-site solar panels, state-of-the-art (for 2006) insulation, and energy efficient lighting
• Has an advanced reclaimed rainwater system. Water run-off from the green roof is controlled through sustainable drainage systems into two lakes constructed along with the stadium. The lakes ensure that in an average rainfall year, the pitch/field can be watered and maintained without using the town’s water supply.
• Was built with sustainable construction materials
• Uses under floor heating on both levels of the clubhouse, which provide a more energy efficient method of heating the building
• Reused excavated earth to landscape the external courtyard areas around the stadium

While this is groundbreaking, what really sets Princes Park’s design apart from other similarly sized stadia is its bold use of sustainably harvested timber and green roofs for the clubhouse and terraces. The timber is much lighter, compared with steel and concrete, which made it easier and less energy intensive to transport. Its insulation properties and low thermal mass help to reduce fuel usage and bills. The green roof offers a natural cooling and air filtration system.

So now GreenSportsBlog has two smallish-but-green clubs to pull for in English soccer: Forest Green Rovers, now in the fourth tier, and Dartford F.C., now in the sixth.

ADIDAS GREENENERGY FUND REACHES $10.8 MILLION

The Adidas Group greenENERGY Fund is a capital investment fund originally created in 2012 to accelerate the company’s carbon reductions, attain and verify energy and cost savings, as well as document and share best practices across all of its facilities. Individual Adidas manufacturing and administrative sites submit applications for efficiency projects to the company’s Finance, Engineering, and Corporate Real Estate Steering Committee, which evaluates applications based on their projected impact on the entire portfolio of projects. Adidas’ fund set an aggressive portfolio level goal of 20 percent Internal Rate of Return (IRR) on the energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. Projects with lower returns can be pursued as long as they are balanced by projects with higher than average results.

As of December, the fund has invested $10.8 million in 61 energy efficiency and renewable energy projects since it began in 2012 and forecasts an impressive IRR of 29 percent across the entire project portfolio. Worth noting is the fact that several energy savings projects were identified by Adidas’ workforce.

MOTORCYCLING CHAMPIONSHIPS IN ITALY GO GREEN

Environmental and social sustainability will be among the key ingredients at the Gran Premio TIM San Marino e Riviera di Rimini, the 13th round of the 2017 World Motorcycling Championship. It will take place this weekend (September 8-10) at the Misano World Circuit in Rimini, Italy on the Adriatic coast.

The KiSS (Keep it Shiny and Sustainable) Misano program aims to make spectators, racing teams and riders more aware of the importance of environmental and social sustainability at motorcycling events.

• Spectators are encouraged by a multi-media ad and social media (#kissmissano) campaign, to come to the circuit by using public means of transportation, car pooling, bicycles
• Recycling and used battery bins will be deployed all around the race circuit
• Used cooking oil will be collected for transformation into biofuel
• Surplus food from the hospitality suites will be collected and donated

KiSS Misano is a ratcheting up of the event’s longstanding sustainability heritage. In 2011 the Misano circuit became the first in Italy to be equipped with a photovoltaic solar system that produces some 450,000 Kw per year. Last year’s World Ducati Week, which drew more than 60,000 visitors) was the first motorcycling event in Italy to obtain the “sustainable event” certification according to the ISO 2012-1 standard.

Coordinating the Misano circuit’s greening efforts is Right Hub, an Italian sustainability start-up that recently obtained B Corporation certification.

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