The meeting served as an efficient platform for partners to share sustainability-related news and good practices from their organisations, and for the whole Team to advance its work on project outputs. To highlight but two examples, Slovak NOC presented the first draft of their sustainability strategy, and the IOC informed participants about the Olympic Agenda 2020+5 and its susatianbility dimension, including the recently adpoted targets in this area.
Even though the meeting had to be moved online due to the ongoing pandemics (from its original location in Helsinki), it still kept its Finnish “look and feel”. FI NOC’s Secretary General, Mikko Salonen, welcomed participants and stressed that sustainability is one of the cornerstones of the NOC’s strategy. “It inspires us and challenges us with different yet connected topics such as environmental protection, safe sport or the fight against doping,” he added. All these topics are reflected in the Finnish Sport’s Sustainability Programme, which “draws the big picture of sustainability.” The Programme was later presented by his NOC colleagues, together with examples of its successful implementation, including by the Kainuu Regional Sport Organisation in the framework of the forthcoming winter European Youth Olympic Festival Vuokatti 2021.
At the meeting, the ASAP team also worked on idetifying recommendations and good practices for the forthcoming Sustainability Strategy Creation Roadmap, and laid foundations for the ASAP Sustainability Communications cheat sheet.
The next ASAP team meeting will take place in October 2021, this time, hopefully in-person.