Global Sports Organizations to Meet in Paris for Sport and Sustainability Congress

More than 120 representatives from some of the world’s most influential sports federations and businesses will convene in Paris on Tuesday, the 23rd May, to participate in the inaugural Congress of Sport and Sustainability International (SandSI), a milestone event in the history of the sustainability movement. The Congress will place the international sports industry directly in support of the world’s most progressive and meaningful ecological agenda as participants representing more than 30 countries from six continents promote their commitment to the Paris Agreement, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and other urgently needed environmental and social initiatives.

Participants at the Sport and Sustainability International Congress will include the French Ministry of Sport, the International Olympic Committee, Roland Garros, Formula E, European Professional Club Rugby, the Tour de France, and the Volvo Ocean Race, as well as sports federations and industry representatives from Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, and North and South America.

"The Paris Sport and Sustainability Congress is an event of great consequence for the global environmental movement, going well beyond being ‘merely’ a sports industry event," said Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, a Founding Director of SandSI. "It reflects an unprecedented expression of support by the international sports industry for the Paris Agreement, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and healthy, just and sustainable communities worldwide."

The full event program can be accessed HERE.

"By bringing international sport and sustainability experts together we aim to support the global fight against climate change and address some of the urgent social issues our world has to deal with," said Neil Beecroft, SandSI President. "Sport can play a crucial role and SandSI will leverage this opportunity."

Participants at the Sport and Sustainability International Congress will seek to ensure that sustainability is a key business principle throughout the global sports industry, leveraging their cultural and market influence in support of the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to promote healthy, sustainable and just communities.

The Congress is occurring in advance of European Sustainable Development Week (ESDW), an annual European-wide initiative focused on showcasing and stimulating projects and events that promote the UN Sustainable Development Goals and sustainable development more broadly.

The WELL Building Institute (IWBI), a founding member of SandSI, partnered with the organization to sponsor the Congress. The organization’s involvement reflects the important role of health and wellness through the built environment as a vital component to comprehensive sustainability programs. Organizations across the world seek IWBI’s WELL Building Standard™ (WELL) to ensure their facilities promote the health and wellness of the people who live, work, and learn in them.

"Our buildings are habitat and shelter," said IWBI Chairman and CEO Rick Fedrizzi.

"They define our cities and provide structure for our communities. They are where we assemble for some of the most important cultural celebrations, sport included. Since the earliest days of the ‘green building’ movement they have been engines of innovation and models for improved environmental performance. At IWBI, we’re leading sustainability’s second wave, putting people at the center of design and operational decisions with buildings that enhance our health and well-being, and one again, sports venues are helping us lead the way."

The Congress will also mark the formal establishment of SandSI as an organization at its inaugural General Assembly during the afternoon session. The organization’s General Assembly will build consensus for its vision, mission, statutes and resolutions, as well as elect members to its board of directors and form its operating committees.

"SandSI is raising sustainability to new heights in the world of sport," said Didier Lehenaff, SandSI Vice President. "No more 'sustainability in sport' only. From now on, it is sustainability through sport."

The formation of SandSI is the result of numerous meetings that took place over the past two years among of the world’s top sports industry sustainability experts, culminating in foundational meetings in the Olympic capital of Lausanne, Switzerland throughout 2015 and 2016, at COP 21 in Paris in 2016, during the Sustainable Innovation in Sport Conference in Munich Germany in February 2017 and now in Paris. At those meetings influential representatives from European, North American and other international sports organizations and businesses agreed that leveraging the influence of sport can be highly effective in promoting the Paris Agreement and the UN SDGs.

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