ASAP project in the spotlight

While the topic of sustainability is slowly making its way on the agendas of sport organisations around the world, in Europe, we have been witnessing a truly exponential growth in interest in the past months. This interest has been translated in more opportunities for projects such as ASAP to share their learnings with a wider audience, inform, and inspire other organisations to action. In the past one and half months, we have had the chance to address various stakeholders in and beyond the sport movement and introduce them to the concepts and ideas underpinning our project and to the “why’s” behind our respective sustainability actions.

  • The newly established European Commission Expert Group (XG) on Green Sport met for the first time at the beginning of May 2021. The ASAP project manager and member of the EOC EU Office team, Jana Janotova, was given the opportunity to address the XG members with an introduction to Olympic movements activities in the area of sustainability/green sport. She did not forget to mention the ASAP project as an example of a successful initiative co-financed by the EU.

XG

  • The “Calling the shots: Sports and the European Green Evolution” online conference was the first event of this kind looking at the topic of “green sport” from a comprehensive EU perspective. Bringing together athletes, sport organisations, NGOs as well national and European policy makers, the organisers (Surfrider Europe Foundation and French Ministry of Sport) created an interesting platform for discussion to which the ASAP project manager actively participated. Jana Janotova has highlighted, in particular, the rationale behind the ASAP project – the need to move from ad-hoc actions to a strategic approach, where sustainability is at the core of organisational development – which she promoted as the most efficient and sensible (and perhaps the only) way to a “sustainably greener” sport. 

Calling the shots

  • Perhaps less evident but all the more rewarding, was the opportunity to introduce the topic of sport and sustainability to public service broadcasters while using the ASAP project as a case study. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) Academy, the first Online learning session dedicated to this subject took place on 4 June 2021, and the ASAP project manager had the pleasure to share the “virtual floor” with BBC Sport’s Head of Operations, Charlie Cope. The EBU Academy will continue exploring this topic with its members in the coming months.

EBU1It brings us, the ASAP team, a great joy to see where cooperation, partnerships, and exploration of new ways of doing things can lead. While oftentimes data and information about climate change, biodiversity crisis and unsustainable consumption can be very “doomy and gloomy”, and rightly so, initiatives such as the ones mentioned above make us positive not only about the real impact of our project, but about our future in general.