As the football season kicks off, DPD’s logo and branding is once again appearing on the back of Forest Green Rover’s player’s shirts and on the stadium and pitch perimeter, as part of DPD’s two year sponsorship deal with the club.

DPD signed its sponsorship deal with Forest Green Rovers in 2023 and has been the club’s parcel delivery partner since 2021, delivering replica kit and merchandise for fans.

Forest Green Rovers is known for being the only vegan football club in the world and in 2017, its chairman Dale Vince was appointed as a Climate Champion for the United Nations.

The UN also recognised Forest Green Rovers as the first carbon neutral football club in the world as part of the UN Climate Neutral Now pledge.

The club’s sustainable initiatives cover every aspect of its operation including energy, transport, food, waste and supporting nature and biodiversity.

To reflect its commitment to sustainability Forest Green Rovers’ new kit is made out of bamboo fabric and each shirt features a design on the inside of the neck inspired by the warming stripes developed by climate scientist Professor Ed Hawkins, at the University of Reading, to illustrate the rise in average global temperature since 1850, while the inside seam features a graph showing the loss of biodiversity since 1970.

DPD UK is also continuing its journey to net zero, and is on target to deliver a 46% reduction in emissions by the end of 2024, from the 2020 baseline, with a third of its final mile van fleet now electric and 95% of its HGV fleet running on HVO.

As part of Geopost, DPD UK has a net zero target of 2040, which is fully validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). The company is on track with the trajectory required to meet the group target.

The company recently added a further 350 electric vehicles to its fleet taking the EV fleet close to 4,000 strong, while its new flagship London sortation centre is now consistently over 90% all-electric in terms of final mile, as part of DPD’s plan to deliver electric only across London.

Tim Jones, DPDgroup director of marketing, communications and sustainability, (pictured right with chief executive Dane Vince) said: “Working with Forest Green Rovers has been inspirational.

“The club continues to lead the way on sustainability, significantly reducing its carbon emissions, finding innovative solutions and new ways to highlight the key issues.

“The team shirts this season show how the message is literally sown into the fabric of the organisation.

“At DPD, we are six years into our own sustainability journey in terms of decarbonising our business and improving every aspect of our operation.

“While we have made good progress, we know there are tougher challenges ahead, so it is fantastic to be able to share experiences and successes with other like-minded organisations and hopefully together we can help raise awareness of what can be achieved.”

Forest Green Rovers chairman, Dale Vince, added: “DPD is a big company, visible in our daily lives - that takes net zero seriously.

“At FGR we bring sustainability into every aspect of what we do - it’s a driver in every choice we make, which is why we use DPD to deliver to our fans.

“We’re really pleased to have DPD partner with us again this season - helping us deliver great sustainability.”

Topics