Following in the footsteps of their peers – NOCs of the Czech Republic and Slovakia – HU NOC prepared and staged two awareness-raising events for schools bringing together sport and environmental education. Targeting 7th and 11th grade students from “Olympic Schools” in Budapest, the two pilot events saw over 50 participants engaging in a number physical, cognitive and team-work activities focusing on the relation between sport and the environment, and on how climate change and environmental degradation are effecting sports and their lives in general.
The pilot events proved to be very successful and the organisation is planning to build on them next year; then already in the context of the implementation of their strategy. Indeed, with its content approved by the Executive Board earlier this year, the final version of the Sustainability Strategy 2022-2030 has just come out of the press.
Using the IOC sustainability strategy as an example, the document is divided into three main spheres of responsibility of the HU NOC – as an organisation, as a key actor in Hungarian sports life, and as an actor of the international sport movement. Within these three spheres, the organisation will strive to reach 16 strategic objectives, including:
- Improving the efficiency and quality of its own built infrastructure, making its operations more economical, and enriching the natural environment;
- making its procurement ethical and improving its resource management;
- decreasing its transportation-related environmental impact;
- laying down common minimum [sustainability] standards for organisations recognized by the Hungarian Olympic Committee;
- developing guidelines and manuals for actors in the Olympic Movement as well as sports professionals;
- supporting educational, research, and scientific activities in the framework of the Olympic Movement at the intersection of sports and sustainability; or
- creating international cooperation in the area of sports and sustainability at the expert and leadership levels.
The content of the strategy and its actions have been informed and inspired, to a large extent, by the Finnish Olympic Committee, HU NOC’s mentor. To learn more about how FI NOC puts in practice its sustainability programme and get concrete tips for the implementation of their Strategy, HU NOC’s sustainability team went on a bilateral/study visit to Helsinki. During their short but intensive stay, they not only visited the FI NOC’s headquarters and discussed various sustainability topics with the Finnish experts, but also went on a field visit to the Olympic stadium and the URHEA Olympic training centre to draw inspiration from the top-in-class sport programmes and infrastructure.
With this impressive “triple jump” of activities and the ASAP Forum behind them, HU NOC is on the right track to turn their sustainability programme into reality in the coming months and years.