Forest Green Rovers, the football club which plays in England’s third professional tier, League One, has begun work on building its ground-breaking all-wooden stadium. The Eco Park development will be built next to Junction 13 of the M5 motorway in the county of Gloucestershire.
The plan for an all-wooden stadium was initially rejected by the local authority, Stroud District Council, in June 2019. Permission was eventually granted in December 2019, based on an amended proposal. Green energy company Ecotricity unveiled the revised plans for the 5,000-seat stadium in January 2022.
The new site will also include 38,000 square metres of office space and 18,000 square metres of industrial space and will be designed to host companies working in the zero-carbon economy. The club said the plan would improve the habitat on the site, with a biodiversity net gain of about 12 per cent. The site is expected to self-generate over 80 per cent of energy used.
Forest Green Rovers, which currently plays at the New Lawn stadium, claims to be the greenest football club in the world.