Episode 02: A Local Football Club’s Green Energy Program - Robert Davies
Inside the Episode with Rob Davies, Board Member with Merthyr Town FC:
Family history from my dad’s dad’s family’s old home town in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales and perfect serendipity that reconnected us back to our routes.
A transition from Coal to Green Energy: How history is inspiring a new green energy movement in Merthyr
Models for Community Ownership and Support: Merthyr Town FC’s strategy for plugging into their community in more ways than just sport.
References to keep in mind:
3G Pitch: The field that Merthyr Town FC plays on, which also acts as the center for community involvement and activities to gather the town together like kids summer soccer camp and the walking soccer tournament for seniors. The pitch, through some of these activities, is also helping generate income that will fall into the capital reserve for the club.
Forest Green Rovers: ‘Greenest’ football club in the UK deemed by the EU.
The History
My paternal grandfather’s side of the family comes from a small town in the South of Wales, called Merthyr Tydfil. You’ve probably never heard of it before. 20 minutes north of Cardiff, Merthyr is a forgotten town with a complex past. My dad and I set out to return back to Merthyr and learn more about this history, we had no idea what to expect…
October 2021. Before departing for our trip, we unpacked 4 overflowing Bankers Boxes onto my bed in New York. They were filled to the brim by my grandmother, Frances Helen, with old family journals, notecards, pictures, and artifacts - I learned quickly where my impressive hoarding genes come from.
Amidst the trinkets, we found a picture that Frances Helen had saved. It showed a grassy field filled with sheep, a Welsh theme we would later learn. On the back of the picture, we found 2 things… the first, a reminder in her script handwriting, ‘Merthyr Tydfil, this is where Mary lived’ (my great-grandmother). The second, a building name: ‘Garthnewydd’. We looked this name up and believe it or not, we found an address… and it still existed today… we had our first lead.
Who would we meet? What would be there? What would we learn about our family? We didn’t know. All we knew was that we would have to go and see for ourselves…
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The Journey
While doing research on our old town, we found that they had a local football club, Merthyr Town FC, competing in the Southern League Premier Division South - the 7th tier of the English football league system. I’ve spent pretty much my entire life growing up playing football (soccer), so we knew we had to try and see a match. When we looked up their schedule, sadly, they didn’t have any home games in Wales. BUT, it turned out that on the first day we were planning to arrive in London, they would be playing a match about 45 minutes north of the city…
We caught the Tube from the Tower of London to the national rail line and traveled north to a small town called Kings Langley, another place you’ve probably never heard of considering even our hotel in London had no clue how to get there. The town train stop was still a 20-30 minute walk from the stadium grounds, so we found ourselves walking along the highway on the last leg of the journey. We arrived early, grabbed a beer from the pop-up pub and chose a good spot on the concrete standing bleachers.
Merthyr Town FC came out for warmups before the start of the match and my dad and I gave a cheer, inviting a few confused glances our way from the Kings Langley faithful. ‘Who are these two random guys we’ve never seen before? Why are they rooting for Merthyr? And why do they sound American?’
The match began and Merthyr scored a great goal, jumping out to an early first half lead - my dad and I went crazy. Of course, since we were the ‘away side’ the rest of the crowd was silent EXCEPT for us and these three guys behind us, also in celebration and wearing some very stylish Merthyr Town FC hats. We turned around and high-fived them, thankful that we might have someone on our side if the local team fans decided to turn their death stares into action…
At half-time, my dad and I struck up a conversation with these three men behind us… they were born and raised in Merthyr Tydfil and actually on the Board of Trustees for Merthyr Town FC! They were confused why we were there, confessing that their first thought was ‘who the heck are these lads?’ but also excited to see some other fans who had clearly traveled a long way to show up for the club. We told them about our family history, the notecard with the sheep we had found from my grandmother, and they excitedly invited us to the Merthyr stadium for a tour when we planned to be there a few days later.
‘Perfect Serendipity’… What were the chances of us standing directly in front of them? What were the chances they were a part of the club and kind enough to invite us to their home field? This was one of my first great lessons in the realm of ‘fieldwork’. Go on adventures, put yourself in positions to meet new people, and exude an open mindset to welcome other people into conversation with you.
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Community-Driven Green Energy
When I followed up with Board member Rob Davies over email, I told him how excited we were to visit the Merthyr stadium and also told him about Brym, this new project I was working on at the intersection of Climate Innovation and Justice. There were a few environmental organizations in Wales I was hoping he might know and be able to introduce me to. Turns out, while he didn’t know the groups I was targeting, Merthyr Town FC had actually just launched their own ‘Green Energy Programme’!!
We arrived at the stadium and he offered to show me the new solar panels they had just installed in partnership with a local South Wales workers cooperative, EGNI. We will hear more from the Founder of Egni and this partnership in our upcoming episode, but their agreement allowed Merthyr Town FC to purchase energy from those panels at a 20% discount compared to the normal grid pricing. They had also just replaced their old lighting system with LED lights that saved up to 50% of the electricity used, and had installed smart infrared sensors to act as timers in their buildings to only use energy when people entered rooms. Moving forward, they are launching a few other great initiatives with the community including a new wind turbine, electric car chargers in the carpark, potentially on the horizon as an example for the community and for larger football clubs as well.
After the tour, we walked out onto the pitch (field) and I asked him if we could record an interview together on these initiatives… our conversation ended up being Brym’s first ever interview. We were off to the races with a great positive example at the intersection of green innovation, local community justice, and a sport that I loved.
I was not expecting to encounter this third variable in the equation. However, it makes complete sense when you learn more about the essential role of a local football club in supporting a small community like Merthyr beyond just sport. They run a Foundation alongside the club that supports schools, healthcare centers, elderly populations, and is a strong overall proponent for the health of their town.
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From Extractivism to Labor Organizing
During our conversation, I also learned more about the history of Merthyr Tydfil and its central role during the global industrial revolution. Under the Merthyr soil lies a vast wealth of coal. In the early 19th century, industry flocked to extract the resource, lifting the population from a couple hundred to over 80,000 in just a few years. The town’s story of extraction is similar to countless others across our world history, leaving the Merthyr land, water and air polluted to the extent you can still see the effects in the town and rivers today. Two of the main current-day tourist attractions are a deep coal mine into which you can take an elevator down and a coal powered steam engine train that takes you into the nearby mountains where much of the mining took place.
This early example of global capitalism led to exploitation of workers for the benefit of the mine owners. We learned that my great-great grandfather was what they called a ‘fireman’, one of the most gruesome jobs in the mining world. The fireman was responsible for carrying a torch into mines to test out where there might be pockets of dangerous gases like methane - hoping to deliver insights on where it was safe to drill next, and sacrificing themselves to show where it was not. My great-great grandfather, Thomas, like many other firemen, died in the mine in his late 20s or early 30s.
Stemming from stories like this, Merthyr Tydfil became one of the birthplaces of Labor Organizing, aiming to collectivize action in support of increased wages and protections for workers in the mines. The Red flag, today oftentimes synonymous with labor movements and socialism, apparently originated in our small town.
Learning and growing from this history, Merthyr Town FC is partnering with their local community to strategize a transition away from coal extraction and towards a cleaner and safer future.
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The Lessons: Planning a ‘Just Transition’
One of the biggest questions that we heard coming out of the UN Conference in Glasgow, COP26, was: As we envision a new future beyond the world of fossil fuels and extractivism, ‘How do we design a “Just Transition” that supports each member of our global community?’
One positive example that we can learn from seems to be Merthyr Tydfil and Merthyr Town FC.
Community-oriented in it’s Design, Ownership, and Actions:
Merthyr Town FC is a 100% community and fan-owned club, similar in structure to a workers cooperative. Unlike many of the larger clubs which have wealthy individual owners or conglomerates as their figureheads, local people can ‘own’ their club for as little as 20 pounds.
Rob says that this drives a much greater level of involvement from the local community who see the club as their own and feel as if they can impact the larger whole… as well as benefit from its successes.
When it comes to Decision-making, the club takes the community’s thoughts into much more consideration, as each individual has the ability to vote on large decisions happening within the club.
Intersectional Focus
Climate Change is what we call a ‘threat multiplier’ which means that its impacts aren’t only on the climate, but also health, housing, food, and more. Therefore, it’s important to build intersectional programs that aren’t just geared towards an energy transition, but also provide more social, economic, and healthcare support for the local community.
The Club’s Foundation is a great example that will seek an impact beyond football and the green energy program, supporting the community in many different ways, including working with a special education school program, individuals who have been homeless over the last 3-4 years, care homes for elders with dementia, and military veterans.
Localization of problem solving
Merthyr Town FC, by partnering with a local workers cooperative, EGNI, kept energy and resources in the local community.
As they build their Club Foundation, Merthyr Town FC partners with ‘future generations, current generations, and future generations.’ Local schools, healthcare organizations, and charities identify community challenges and where to focus their foundation’s dollars. They also employ local individuals to carry out the community work.
In Closing
It is a huge privilege and gift to be able to track your family history with family by your side. As I was telling friends about this upcoming experience, a close friend told me how excited he was for me because a lot of people don’t have family records back more than a few generations for a number of reasons… especially if you’re not from a Western European lineage. It was an important blessing to contextualize our adventure in that history.
The process of going back to Merthyr together was really special for me and my dad. I feel incredibly lucky to have had the chance to learn about where I come from. That experience has helped me shape what I’m passionate about and why. It’s allowed me to reckon with really difficult parts of what our family fought for generations ago and why it’s important for me to keep fighting for those things now. I also realize the incredibly lucky circumstances that combined together to allow my family to survive and leave for a new life in the US… now it’s time for us to make the most of it!
Encouraged Reading:
Book on Worker Cooperatives: ‘How to be an Anti-Capitalist in the 21st Century,’ Erik Olin Wright
