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The meeting will be held online on March 18 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Free registration at http://bit.ly/JornadaEsportsSostenibles
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Athletes Àstrid Fina and Albert Bosch will participate and journalist Joan Maria Pou will moderate a round table with organizations from the world of sports.
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The conference is co-organized by the Ecoserveis association, INDESCAT, the Generalitat de Catalunya, Sabadell City Council and Loom Sostenible.
Free registrationSession program
The first conference on sustainability and sport will take place on Thursday, March 18, bringing together public, private and non-profit entities in Catalonia. The event is part of the actions of the European project PlayGreen , coordinated by the Ecoserveis association and funded through the Erasmus + program of the European Union with the aim of raising awareness about the importance of sustainability in the world of sports and designing work resources to achieve it.
The role of sports in the face of the climate emergency
The climate emergency is becoming more visible every year and sporting events contribute greatly to it: their environmental impact can be very high. According to Collins & Flynn [1] , the ecological footprint of the audience at a sporting event can be up to five times higher than that of the same people in their daily lives. Despite their environmental impact, however, sports also have a great capacity for impact that must be used to promote a transformation towards a more sustainable world.
With this objective in mind, the Sustainable Sports Events conference has been organized, which brings together, for the first time in Catalonia, public sector actors around this topic ( Sabadell City Council and the Generalitat de Catalunya ), the private sector (the sports industry cluster in Catalonia, INDESCAT ), and non-profit organizations of reference in energy and climate ( Ecoserveis ) and in sustainable events ( Loom Sostenible).).
The activity is aimed at clubs, associations and other entities in the world of sports interested in creating tournaments and clubs with a lower impact on the environment.
The Sustainable Sports Events day coincides with the final event of the European project PlayGreen , funded by the Erasmus+ Sport programme and coordinated by Ecoserveis, and with the participation of UEFA federations in Malta, Estonia, Latvia and the Flemish part of Belgium, as well as the European Non-Governmental Sports Organisation ( ENGSO ). Over the course of two years, the member organisations of the consortium have worked together to promote the sustainable management of their sports events through young volunteers.
Inspiration and success stories
The day will begin with a welcome from Àstrid Fina , Paralympic athlete, followed by an inspiring talk from runner and adventurer Albert Bosch , who will share his vision on the role of athletes in leading the change that society needs to mitigate the climate emergency. This will be followed by a round table, moderated by journalist Joan Maria Pou , on success stories in the management of sustainable events. Joan Porcar, president of the sports agency RPM-MKT , will participate, to address the sustainable management of the Dakar and Titan Desert; Josep Lluis Santamaria, general director of the Circuit de Catalunya , who will talk about the management of the circuit, and Anna Parisi, representative of the Ultra Clean Marathon , to explain this event that combines sport and sustainability.
After the talk, Ecoserveis will present the education and outreach materials that have been produced throughout the duration of PlayGreen. Also, together with Loom, tools and indicators available to calculate the environmental footprint of sports facilities will be described and, as guests from Italy, the University of Santa Anna will present an online tool to calculate the environmental footprint of sports events.
To end the day, the experience of the Green Team (environmental volunteers) who have participated in the PlayGreen project will be presented and the team that has achieved the best results in terms of environmental impact and awareness of their environment will be awarded.
[1] Collins, A. and Flynn, A., 2008. Measuring the environmental sustainability of a major sporting event: A case study of the FA Cup Final. Tourism Economics , 14 (4), pp.751-768.
Free registration
The Sustainable Sports Events Conference will be held on March 18 in virtual format.
To participate, prior registration is required at: http://bit.ly/JornadaEsportsSostenibles . The form is available in Catalan and English. The event has a maximum capacity of 100 people, a waiting list will be created to ensure that as many people as possible can participate.
