FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sustainable Events Management System pilot programme gathering momentum
as Oregon22 approaches
As part of their long-term commitment to reduce the environmental impact of
the sport, more than two dozen one-day athletics meetings and World
Athletics Tour events have tested the Sustainable Events Management System
(SEMS) and the Athletics for a Better World Standard thus far this season,
a pilot programme that will continue at the World Athletics Championships
Oregon22, starting on 15 July.
The introduction of the SEMS, a best practice guidance that covers 15 key
areas of event planning and delivery, and the Standard, a certification
that measures and scores an event's achievement in sustainable delivery,
are among the key deliverables of the World Athletics Sustainability
Strategy for 2022, as outlined in the global governing body's first
sustainability report, which was released today.
Embedding principles of sustainability into event delivery is a core
component of the World Athletics Sustainability Strategy, the 10-year road
map unveiled in April 2020 that has goals including transitioning to carbon
neutrality across all of its operations and owned events by 2030. The World
Athletics Sustainability Report 2020-2021 charts the organisation's
progress over the first 19 months since the launch of its strategy with a
detailed look at each of the strategy document's six pillars.
World Athletics introduced the SEMS (English, French, Spanish) and Standard
(English, French, Spanish) to its one-day meetings, tour events and local
organising committees of upcoming World Athletics Series events in November
and has provided ongoing support since, via one-on-one meetings, a 12-part
webinar series, a range of e-learning modules, visits to live events and
the development of a knowledge bank of information and case studies on the
World Athletics website.
The Standard will be tiered, with gold, silver and bronze levels that will
eventually have to be met as part of the sanctioning process. Cities
bidding to host upcoming World Athletics Series events, for which bids
launch in the latter half of 2022, will be required to commit to a gold
level achievement, making sustainability a core feature of all future
events. World Athletics is urging all of its sanctioned events to pilot the
system in 2022 and 2023 before implementing it at its editions in 2023 and
2024.
The World Athletics Championships Oregon22, which get under way in nine
days, will be the first World Championship event to test the system and
Standard. The State of Oregon and City of Eugene are world-renowned for
their sustainability practices, a reputation that Oregon22 organisers were
eager to build upon.
Sarah Massey, CEO of Oregon22, LLC, said: "Sustainability is a significant
part of our ‘Drive Change' initiative and has been a guiding principle in
every aspect of our planning and delivery for this event."
Carolyn Stein, the sustainability lead for the Oregon22 LOC, said: "We
worked with local constituents, organisations and advocates to create and
execute a vision to be the most sustainable World Athletics Championships
ever. From our efforts to reduce single-use plastics to our food recovery
programmes, from our materials management to our selection of vendors, we
believe we have established a blueprint for sustainability at future
large-scale sporting events."
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said: "We're very fortunate that
our partners in Oregon have put such a strong emphasis on sustainability in
the delivery of our championships this year. They want to set a really high
bar and create a best-practice example that can be replicated throughout
our sport. Their ambitions, experience and feedback will be invaluable as
we begin to add stronger sustainability requirements to our World Athletics
Series events."
Arttu Salonen, the athletes' liaison of the Paavo Nurmi Games World
Athletics Continental Tour meeting in Turku, Finland, said that piloting
the SEMS and Standard at their event last month helped to build a strong
foundation.
"The Athletics for a Better World Standard gives a great overview of the
types of issues that are very much present in the world we all share in a
way that's easily transferrable to the day-to-day operations of an
athletics competition," Salonen said. "It also helps meeting organisers to
get started on working with themes in the sustainability sphere. The SEMS
workshops have been great at breaking down sustainability issues into key
problem areas with ideas on how an event organiser can make impactful
choices."
Michael Mottle, the CEO of the Stadtwerke Ratingen Mehrkampf-Meeting (7-8
May), an important early season stop on the World Athletics Combined Events
Tour where the SEMS and Standard were also piloted this year, concurred.
"The Standard provides a good orientation and working tool for preparing
and executing an event," Mottle said. "It shows the various fields of play
in which organisers of meetings have to work on sustainable solutions. At
the same time, the ranking system of the Standard shows in which areas
further efforts have to be tackled going forward and which areas are
already in a good shape in sustainable terms."
Mottle said that the best practice guidance provided by World Athletics
helped his team work on "small projects" that have already resulted in "a
better and greener event" this year. "We really emphasised the usage of
public transport this year and provided extra bicycle parking lots for our
spectators and for the LOC team," he added. "This idea was highly supported
throughout the whole event."
Michael Reilly, co-meeting director of The Prefontaine Classic, the premier
annual one-day meeting in the United States, is looking forward to piloting
the system at his event next year.
"The vision of the Athletics for a Better World Standard is comprehensive,
compelling, and on target," said Reilly. "The Prefontaine Classic looks
forward to being a strong partner with World Athletics and the other
Diamond League meeting organisers in pursuit of this important mission."
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