UEFA Calls Attention to the ‘Significant Issue’ of Making Sport Sustainable
UEFA, football’s governing body in Europe, has released a new report emphasising the urgent need to make sport more sustainable.The report, called Playing for our Planet, was produced with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and contains examples of how making the transition to sustainability is both necessary and comes with major benefits.The upsides of embedding sustainability include reduced costs from efficiency savings; reduced impacts from climate change; and greater innovation in infrastructure and operations.Sport has a unique ability to engage tens of millions of people around the world; the report makes clear that if clubs and institutions accelerate their efforts then their reach will be “unparalleled”.However, as the report makes clear few sports bodies “can truly say they are tackling sustainability in full.” World Sailing is one of them, and it has created a sustainability strategy with clear objectives. These are underlined by three pillars: environmental, social and economic. Its work to incorporate sustainability across all associations within its 146 member countries recently earned the federation an international accreditation.Read the full article.