Eco-friendly minnows are true green giants

LONDON - Tucked away in the leafy Cotswold hills, English fourth-tier club Forest Green Rovers rarely make sporting headlines but have become unlikely trailblazers for something more pressing than three points on a Saturday afternoon.

At this week's major United Nations Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland, the club's chairman, Dale Vince, received an award for his work in making Rovers the world's greenest soccer club.

One of 15 projects to win Momentum for Change awards, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) deputy executive secretary Ovais Sarmad described the Gloucestershire club, founded in 1889 and nicknamed the Green Devils, as "the de-facto standard for sustainability in sport".