How a Pembrokeshire football club made its pitches greener

At first glance, Clarbeston Road FC looks like any other local football club. You’ll see pitches, changing rooms and cheering fans on the sidelines. But look closer, and you’ll spot some unusual touches: a wildflower meadow buzzing with bees, solar panels soaking up the sun and environmentally friendly wooden terraces for spectators.

Over the past decade, the Pembrokeshire club has quietly grown into one of the greenest in Wales. With more than 350 players now on its books, it’s showing how sport, inclusivity and sustainability can go hand in hand – even in the smallest communities.

Chairman Steve Brown says: “We started off with just a few senior and junior teams, but now we have 25 teams, covering all age groups. We’ve got a disability group, and a women’s senior side alongside two men’s teams. The Football Association of Wales (FAW) were surprised when we pointed out that we’ve got more players than the population of the village!”

Grounds for action

Growing the club sustainably has been a challenge. As a charitable organisation with no paid employees, Clarbeston Road relies on a squad of around 85 enthusiastic volunteers. Its facilities are scattered throughout the village, with four football pitches at three different locations plus a central block of changing rooms.

The club owns only one of the playing field sites. “We bought it 25 years ago with lottery funding,” says Steve. “Our focus has been on this site because we lease or rent the others, which limits what we can do with them.”

Although the club has invested around £250,000 in improving the site and making it greener, some of the improvements are easy to miss. Steve and his team have installed sustainable drainage, an environmentally friendly passive sewage system, and a new fuel storage tank that protects the landscape from the risk of leaks.

He says: “We’ve also built spectator seating from wood rather than plastic, and we’ve put an on-demand hot water system in our toilets that only heats up what’s needed. We replaced fluorescent tube lighting with LEDs, and we’ve just had some grant money from Sport Wales to put solar panels on two of our buildings. We’re hoping to become fully self-sufficient in energy.”

A living landscape

A more visible sign of the club’s green ambitions is the colourful new wildflower meadow between the pitches, funded by the Cymru Football Foundation. Steve says: “We’ve had a lot of positive feedback. Some people have traditional views of what sports grounds should look like, and one or two found it untidy at first, but it really engages people and gets them talking.”

Another smart initiative is a football boot reuse scheme, making it easier for kids to get kitted out without breaking the bank. What’s more, anyone with ideas to help the club become even more environmentally friendly can join its Together Greener group, supported by the FAW and the charity Global Action Plan.

As for the future, the club plans to further restore nearby hedgerows, plant a second embankment with wildflowers, and save electricity by installing timers on the fridges used for cold drinks. It has also been trialling a battery-powered robotic mower, reducing the need to bring out the diesel tractor to keep pitches in trim.

“We’ve made a good start on our journey, but this is very much work in progress,” says Steve. “We’ve got big plans to engage more with young people in the community – and we’re always happy to learn from other people’s experience and advice to make the club more sustainable.”

Want to find out more?

Discover how the Cymru Football Foundation is helping to build stronger, more sustainable community-focused clubs, and check out how Welshpool Town FC and Cambrian United FC are helping build a greener Wales.