For over a year, project teams have been working on Special Olympics in Belgium The Italian Special Olympics Committee, led by SO Europe and supported by Think Beyond, has carefully developed, tested and refined the Sport Sustainability Framework. The ultimate goal is to produce a comprehensive document providing best practices and recommendations that any Special Olympics team around the world can use to improve the sustainability of sporting events.
As the team heads home – where the Champions League Special will be held on October 5-6 in Belgium as the final official test event – we caught up with them to understand the challenges they face, the progress they’ve made so far and their hopes for the final lap of the project.
Special Olympics events are often organised in collaboration with a range of partners who may all be at different stages of their sustainability journey, so aligning goals can be a challenge. “We have many partners and often rely heavily on them for support,” says Audrey Descles, project coordinator at Special Olympics Belgium.
These partners could include towns with which Special Olympics Belgium organizes its national games. “If we can convince the town of sustainability, we can move forward,” says Frank De Vos, project coordinator. “Fortunately, this is the direction most towns are moving in. They want to prove that they are sustainable, and in this case, it can really facilitate the partnership if we can say from the very beginning that we also have sustainability goals.”
To Giorgio Scarnicia, Project Manager with Special Olympics in ItalyThe key here is also alignment with partners. “It is important to set common standards for everyone and find best practices that everyone can adopt at each event. It is also important to engage stakeholders and sponsors and ultimately create a legacy,” he says.
Photography by Marco Sicolella
Another area of focus for Special Olympics Italy is the use of locally sourced, sustainably sourced foods at events. “We are Italians, and we care a lot about food! We always choose local food suppliers,” says Sara Capone, project manager for Special Olympics Italy, with a smile. The team also talks to suppliers to see who uses recycled materials and makes decisions about purchasing other merchandise and equipment with this criterion in mind.
The Special Olympics Belgium Committee has also been thinking about the merchandise, tools and equipment it uses, with an emphasis on reuse and reducing consumption. It has asked its core volunteers to keep their uniforms for three years rather than producing new gear that will only be worn a few days each year. The committee is also improving its digital visibility offering to sponsors, allowing them to reduce the amount of new branded material that will be produced year after year.
The project team has been looking at individual steps they can take in these areas and many others, but they believe the key is to take action. Embracing sustainability is not an option, according to this team. “As an organisation, we need to take it seriously,” notes Colin Kenny, Senior Projects and Grants Manager at SO Europe Foundation. “We run a lot of international, national and local events, so we need a strategy to reduce our carbon footprint in line with what other sports organisations are doing in this area. We need to think ahead and be progressive.”
Elaine Salter, Sustainability Manager at Think Beyond, which is supporting the project team, says that developing the project framework is exactly the direction that sports organisations like Special Olympics should be moving in. “It has been great to work with Special Olympics and learn more about the organisation’s work and ongoing environmental sustainability efforts,” she says. “Across sport, a lack of shared direction can often lead to hesitation about developing and sharing sustainability ideas, which is challenging. This Special Olympics project facilitates the sharing of knowledge and learning to drive change. We need a collective understanding that sustainability is not something that needs to be perfected, and that we need to be transparent, collaborative and learn from each other.”
It is hoped that Special Olympics teams around the world will have the opportunity to learn from this project’s Sports Sustainability Framework, which will be produced and distributed in November 2024.
This project has been funded by the European Union. However, the views and ideas expressed in it are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the European Education and Culture Executive Agency can be held responsible for them.
, is now entering its final months. By the end of this year, the team will have produced a pioneering sustainability framework that can be used across our movement and beyond.){kind=link}