Making sport events green?

On 29-30 October, an Erasmus+ Sport collaborative partnership project, led by Associació Ecoserveis (Spain) in partnership with the football federations of Malta, Estonia, the flemish Region of Belgium and ENGSO as partners, PlayGreen, had its second meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, hosted by the Estonian Football Association.

Six international volunteers from the newly formed ‘Green Team’ took part in the meeting. These members were introduced to the aims of the project and the tasks they needed to fulfil in their countries to support the mission to lower the environmental impact of sports competitions and make them greener and more sustainable.

The first day of the meeting, hosted by Estonian Football Association, included workshops to prepare a communication campaign to help the Green Team to bring more volunteers into the project’s cause and raise awareness about the project aims through various communication channels. Partners were also mentored and on how to engage their Green Team volunteers, who will later be tasked to develop a ‘Green Football League’ in their respective countries.

In addition, thanks to the PlayGreen tool created under the project scope, the Green Team and project partners explored the potential impacts that sports events have on the environment, and brainstormed ideas on how to reduce such impacts.

During the second day, young people involved in the project developed a video to launch the Green Team communication campaign and raise awareness about PlayGreen. Green Team members then had a tour around Tallinn, while partners continued their work going through each work package and discussing tasks and how to move forward with the project outputs that will benefit any sport organization willing to create sustainable sport events.

Next meeting: mid-2020

The next project meeting will take place in mid-2020. Until then, the football association project partners and their Green Teams will be busy with organising their Green Football Leagues.

Ecoserveis and ENGSO will also provide mentoring and support throughout the next few months to Green Team members feel empowered and confident in undertaking climate actions through sports.

If you are interested in taking part in the project, you can sign up here. For more information about PlayGreen you can visit the project’s website.