FEDERATIONS SPACE

IF YOU ARE A FEDERATION THIS IS YOUR SPACE! HERE YOU CAN FIND TIPS AND IDEAS TO IMPROVE YOUR FEDERATION SUSTAINABILITY, AND TO SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE WITH OTHERS!

We know it is hard to achieve these goals and we want to give you ideas and tools to make these commitments easier for you. It is not about being the best but to join strengths and knowledge to do the best we can for the planet. Here is a guide with ideas, suggestions and tips to achieve those goals. Share your ideas so others can adopt them.Together we can accelerate the pace to win this race. 

Click the goals to find different solutions:

GOAL 1: Design circuits and events that are environmentally friendly with less international travel.
  • Make a circuit where an athlete can compete in a circuit with less than 3T CO2 emissions. 
  • Reserve international travel only for finals and eventually with rotation of those in different continents every year.
  • Have eco friendly budgets to help the invited athletes to travel by train. 
GOAL 2: Become carbon neutral.
  • Compensate the carbon footprint of the travels of the federation employees.
  • Limit the travel for meetings, e.g. by substituting meetings with videoconferences. 
  • Limit the number of staff members (following an athlete or team) to the events. 
  • Avoid sending materials from one  race to another.
  • Join platforms like Sports for Climate Action or/and Climate Neutral Now
GOAL 3: Introduce regulations forbidding the use of toxic products. Follow up with sanctions.
  • Forbid or minimize the use of products that pollute the environment, such as fuorinated waxes for skiing, dye sprays for marking, explosives for avalanches, etc.
  • Forbid or minimize the use of equipment with toxic products used for its production.
GOAL 4: Introduce regulations and sanctions on environmentally damaging behaviors by participants and organizers.

The federation should include in its sanctioning regime/regulations the possibility of sanctioning with elimination, suspension, loss of points and in extreme cases expulsion from the Federation for athletes and teams who have environmentally damaging behavior. This includes but is not limited to littering, non-selective waste disposal, access to non permitted areas, mobility by athletes’ team violating the event’s guidelines, use of artificial snow, etc.

GOAL 5: Organize or facilitate environmental and conservation activities for your employees and athletes.

Environmental work and conservation activities are non-profit in type and help conserve and protect the environment. Those actions can be of various forms:  cleaning a river or a glacier, planting trees, repairing a trail, carrying gear for scientific research, building an urban farm and a long et cetera.

How and where?

  • On your website, publish a list with possible actions or organisations that participants can join to do conservation works.
  • Organize your own conservation activities and invite participants, volunteers, and spectators to join. This can be anything from working on the trail to prevent erosion, to reforesting or restoring damaged areas at the event sites to cleaning activities in the area.

Here you can find an environmental works directory

Goal 6: Promote responsible consumption.
  • Avoid rules that encourage the purchase of new items or regular replacement.
  • The materials and products needed by the Federation should be fair, bio and sustainable (meeting both social and environmental standards). From the coffee in the offices, to the paper in the printers, to the computers and the sport material that is bought for the national or talent team. This type of material should always be prioritized in the specifications for important purchases.
GOAL 7: Create a guide for environmental conduct to be followed by the events under your umbrella.
  • Create an  environmental guide for events taking into account all environmental aspects (pollution, wildlife and land disturbance, mobility, GHG emissions, energy and resources use, etc.). 
  • Make it mandatory for the federation events and all international competitions to follow the guide. 
  • Set up a monitoring system to police if the guidelines are being followed. .
  • Example by ISMF: http://www.ismf-ski.org/webpages/sustainability-commission/rules-documents/
GOAL 8: Promote environmental responsibility and educate about climate action through communication.
  • On social media,  advertise the actions the federation is taking to protect the environment.
  • Create an education program linking sport practice with the SDGs/ 2030 UN Agenda
  • Promote through communication (newsletters, website, social media, etc.) environmental responsible practices and climate actions.
  • Promote and work with athletes to communicate issues related to environmental responsibility.
GOAL 9: Work only with sponsorships and collaborations from environmentally responsible companies (for the federation and its events).
  • Refuse working with fossil fuel companies or companies who invest in it.
  • Ask prospective sponsors and collaborating companies what are the measures they’re taking to be climate neutral and take their answers into account when deciding on collaborations.
Goal 10: Offer guidance and counseling to the members of the federation (clubs and associations) on how to become more sustainable.

How to have a more environmentally friendly entity: implement measures to save energy, increase sustainability, reconsider the amount of mobility/transport, etc.

DO YOU HAVE MORE TIPS? LET EVERYONE KNOW!

Thanks!