Harness the power - tackling climate change

Aim

We are tackling climate change on and off the pitch. Help us harness the power of our community and remove our reliance on fossil fuels.

We have already reduced our reliance on electricity from the grid and now we want to remove our reliance on gas. To achieve this we need to invest in an air source heat pump (remove gas from the clubhouse), install 2 electrically heated water tanks (remove gas from changing rooms and rely on solar energy), we also need extra battery storage to maximise the benefit of our large solar array. We want your help to reach a dream target of £11,180.

About Dursley RFC

We are not only a Rugby club we are an access center for a running/athletics club, cricket club and gym. It is a fully inclusive club and significant contributor to the social and cultural life of Dursley, Cam and the surrounding  Berkeley Vale area.  Our facilities/club house are used when not being used for sport with local groups eg: Rotarians, parties, wakes, meetings and we even open the bar & kitchen once a month to our local community as the local pub closed several years ago. We also hold not-for-profit community events such as Dursley Rocks annually.

The club fields three regular senior teams, a continually growing women’s section, touch rugby, walking rugby and more than 400 boys and girls playing in our minnow, mini and youth teams ages between 4 to 18, a significant proportion of the local population have some contact with the club. We have something for all aged between 4yrs & 90 yrs!

How can you help?

Did you know that it costs around £10,000 every year to keep the lights and heating on for our clubhouse and changing rooms? And these costs have risen every year.

Two years ago you helped us raise £24,000 to put solar panels on our roof, reducing our reliance on the grid and it has had a massive impact and we are already seeing the benefits of an annual saving of £6Kpa!  We now want to remove our reliance on Gas to continue our carbon zero journey.

That's why we're launching a Crowdfunder to support the purchase and installation of air source heat pump, upgrade of radiators, installation of 2 hot water storage tanks & additional batteries to support our solar array.

We are building a sustainable club for future generations and renewable energy is a big part of our plan.

But time is running out and we need to reduce our reliance on energy suppliers and we need your help.

Our aim is to remove gas by the end of 2025!

The total cost of the heat pump, water storage tanks and batteries is £27,500 

We’ve already received £4500.00 from Greener Gloucestershire Community Climate Change Fund

This means that we have 6 WEEKS, to reach a dream target of £11,820 through our own individual pledges. If we reach that target, Sport England will match fund £11,180, bringing the total raised to £23,000.

There are 1,000 members across rugby, running, athletics and cricket clubs; as well as the communities of Dursley, Cam, Berkeley vale and surrounding villages.  Join us as we HARNESS THE POWER of our sporting communities to bring sustainable energy to our club for future generations.

Why we need to raise money?

Dursley Rugby Club is run by volunteers and all of our income comes from memberships, grant funding, clubhouse bar and kitchen, kit sales and fundraising in the local community.

Two other clubs share our site and also bring in income through membership, events and fundraising. 

Dursley Running Club (DRC) welcomes all levels of runners from those wanting a little bit of gentle exercise to those competing in Ultra Marathons and other crazy events. The club also has an active triathlon and junior section which includes athletics and provides our weekly Mindful Mile held on Saturday morning for 4 yrs - 90 yrs.  They also host the grueling annual Dursley Dozen.

Stinchcombe Stragglers Cricket Club runs during the summer, with senior men and women's teams, junior and Cricket All-stars.  In all we have over 1,000 local members regularly using the facilities.

Therefore having our own renewable energy source will reduce our overheads dramatically, giving us control of our energy costs and more money available to put back into our facilities for our members, thus keeping our membership costs to a minimum to ensure our club is fully inclusive and open to all.

Why remove our reliance on gas? 

It’s part of the club’s long-term plan – to be carbon neutral by 2030, to build a sustainable club and to reduce our reliance on expensive energy.

It’s part of your plan - when we surveyed our members, 79% of you said renewable energy would be top of your list for environmental improvements. Two years ago you helped us raise enough money to install solar panels and battery storage, so that we could generate our own electricity. Now we need to remove the gas and increase our power storage capacity. 

We’ve secured some money for the air source heat pump but we need to raise more to install hot water tanks and more battery storage. This means we can totally remove our reliance on gas and mains electricity.  

Facts and figures

• Significant increase in energy costs over last 2 years
• Air source heat pump is a very efficient way of generating heat & hot water for our club house and uses electricity generated by our solar panels
• Upgrade of radiators needed to work with the new air source heat pump 
• Resulting in reducing our gas bill to Zero for the club house - saving us up to £4K pa
• Installation of additional batteries & inverter to store excess solar energy and enable use overnight and at other peak demand times.
• Installation of  2 no. electrically heated (solar) hot water tanks in the changing rooms will remove need of gas boiler!

What we’ve achieved so far

We are already on our carbon reduction journey and reducing our reliance on wholesale energy sources. With your support we have;

• planted 2620 tree saplings during the last couple of years, with a carbon offset of 26,200kg.
• installed thermal insulation to reduce our energy consumption in the changing rooms,
• automatic lighting and thermostatic heating with web enabled control in our buildings.
• Installed a 40kW solar array & 14.4kWh battery storage, generating 104% of our annual energy requirement and avoided 9 tons of CO2 being put in the atmosphere - over the system lifetime this could equate to 263,000 car km or 189 long haul flights!

What can you do to help?

There are three simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made