World Athletics: unlocking sustainable event success
As leaders from the global business and sports communities converged on Birmingham for SportAccord last week, reports emerged indicating that last month was the world’s warmest March on record, extending the run of monthly temperature records to 10 in a row.
It’s fuelling concerns that the world could be tipping into a new phase of even faster climate change, underscoring the urgent need for action across all sectors, including sport.
Amid this backdrop, Think Beyond , a leading social impact and sustainability consultancy working in and through sport and entertainment, delivered a compelling workshop on unlocking sustainable event success.
Featuring insights from Dr Susie Tomson of Think Beyond , Stuart C. of World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 24 , and Matthew Wookey of UK Sport , the interactive session shone a spotlight on their collaboration with the aim of inspiring other organisations to embed sustainability throughout their operations.
A New Standard for Sustainable Sports
As one of the largest international federations, World Athletics recognises the power of sport to create a better world for its communities, and has committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030.
It’s also setting new standards of excellence in sustainable event delivery through the ‘Athletics for A Better World Standard’. The standard is a pioneering certification system that evaluates, measures and scores an event’s achievements in sustainable delivery.
While recognising major events as an important strategic pillar, World Athletics understood this as just one component of a much broader sustainability strategy that needed to be developed.
Strategic Pillars
Since 2019, thinkBeyond has worked closely with World Athletics led by its Head of Sustainability, Bob Ramsak, to craft and execute its ambitious 2030 Sustainability Strategy, focusing on six key themes:
Senior Partner at thinkBeyond, Susie Tomson said: “Embedding sustainability across a sporting organisation requires visionary leadership and a collective commitment to change from every area of the business. Our work with World Athletics is a testament to what can be achieved when we lead with purpose and a clear vision for a better future.”
From vision to victory
Embedding these six principles into the delivery of all major flagship athletics events, thinkBeyond supported World Athletics to develop, test and refine The Athletics for a Better World Standard over the course of two years.
It consists of 55 action areas that address all levels of event delivery - including procurement, waste management, energy, food and water management, and travel and accommodation planning. It also features a comprehensive hub of training resources and regular workshops to help those get started in sustainability.
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The standard is tiered, with platinum, gold, silver, bronze and recognised event achievement levels that will eventually have to be met as part of the evaluation process of all World Athletics-licensed events.
Head of Sustainability at World Athletics, Bob Ramsak , said: “Our sport’s greatest influence is packaged in the examples we set through the way our events are delivered. The Athletics for a Better World Standard helps those events re-examine how they’re staged and begin a push towards a delivery model where the key guiding principles include reducing their environmental impacts and maximising their social benefits.?
“It's been inspiring to see events begin to make that shift over the last two years. It will be really exciting to see how that shift will progress over the next two years, and two years after that.”
Setting the standard
By fostering partnerships with its clients to create these standards and align objectives, thinkBeyond is driving impactful actions that create a wider influence.
One such example of those embracing the standard is the World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 2024, whose ambition is to set a new benchmark for major event delivery in Scotland and leave a legacy that will benefit Glasgow and World Athletics’ community for years to come.
As the primary funder of the event, UK Sport is also committed to making this event a best-in-class example of social and environmental responsibility. Together they aim to be the first event to achieve Platinum status against the standard.
Social Impact Lead - Major Events and UK Sport, Matthew Wookey said: “Major sporting events are uniquely placed and have the power to reach all corners of society, to bring people together and to drive positive action and change for communities and the planet.?
“The World Indoor Championships in Glasgow were ambitious in their plans to maximise the platform of the event and leave positive impacts for communities across the city and beyond across environmental sustainability; equality, diversity and inclusion; and access to sport and physical activity.?
“By working with a variety of local community partners and organisations to deliver initiatives through the event that will continue after its conclusion, the positive impacts of the Championships will be felt for a long-time to come. The Athletics for a Better World Standard provided a fantastic framework to support the development and delivery of relevant programmes.”
With a coordinated and multi-stakeholder approach to both social and environmental aspects of event delivery, thinkBeyond has been working with both organisations on a comprehensive approach ranging from gap analysis, creating departmental social impact and sustainability action plans, developing templates for sustainable event management and seeking opportunities to positively communicate these actions.
Join the journey
thinkBeyond is committed to guiding organisations like World Athletics, UK Sport and Glasgow 2024 towards embedding sustainability within their organisations, and proving that growing sports and taking action on social impact and sustainability are not mutually exclusive, but can be delivered together. And not only that, but they can drive significant business growth.
To learn more please contact Business Growth Lead at thinkBeyond, Rosanna Post : [email protected]?