Planet, people and profit at major sporting events
By Dr Aileen Ionescu-Somers and Ann Duffy – June 2010

Billions await the kickoff of the FIFA World Cup. The world will be watching to see what nation emerges victorious on the field. At the same time, many others will be watching to see how well South Africa performs in addressing the challenges of hosting a major sporting event from a sustainability perspective.

South Africa can showcase both sides of the coin: a richness of natural resources second to none and also a panoply of ongoing social headaches such as inequality, poverty, statistically the worst HIV/AIDS levels on record, as well as significant insecurity around property rights and personal safety. A major sporting event in South Africa presents an interesting discussion about its relevance to the Rio Declaration’s triple dimensions of sustainable development: environmental, social and economic.

Global sporting events have increasingly focused on sustainability, since often host countries see the opportunity to not only run a successful event but also to further a set of political, economic and social promises. Sustainability of such high profile events – be it “greening”, safety, fair employment of minority groups or a multitude of other considerations – can come under significant public scrutiny. Public discussion about the lack of snow at the Vancouver Winter Olympics (itself owing to unseasonably warm weather attributed by many to the effects of global warming) and the considerable fracas around the safety of the luge run (owing to a fatal accident) are cases in point. This type of exposure on a global level pushes sustainability up the agenda for brand sensitive corporate sponsors as well as sporting federations and committees.

The International Olympic Committee was actually a forerunner in responding to sustainability issues and first started incorporating structured environmental practices in the implementation of the Lillehammer 1994 Winter Games. With each subsequent Games, the bar has been raised higher. More recently, the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) incorporated sustainability dimensions to planning, implementation and monitoring systems.

VANOC communicated its comprehensive approach to sustainability on its web site. VANOC applied its sustainability commitments throughout the seven-year life cycle of the mega-event project. These commitments were aligned with its own organizational, host-region and national culture, since the importance attributed to social and environmental issues can vary significantly from place to place.

Organizing committees have the task of identifying, communicating and living the values that they wish to promote behind an event. Since culture is the sum total of beliefs and values affecting behaviors within organizations, a key to successful transition from event to event is to ensure that everyone is on the same “values” page.

Based on interviews with executives at IMD, culture is also the single organizational attribute most resistant to change for companies in addressing sustainability challenges. Once firmly anchored, culture can outlive products, services, founders, leadership and all other physical attributes of organizations. Because of this, it is becoming essential for companies wishing to align their organizations behind sustainability strategies to engage with human resources departments in recruiting managers with values that already represent an organizational ”fit” in this respect. Sport organizing committees also need to recruit the “right” type of manager. However, owing to the transient nature of the events and their organizing structures, getting managers on board with the ability to adapt and demonstrate resilience in the face of change becomes even more of a core value and element of a Games staff hiring policy and organizational culture.

What are the other challenges involved in organizing sustainable events? Like many mega sport events, the FIFA World Cup will have significant impacts in terms of carbon footprint. Almost half a million tourists are likely to travel to the event for this protracted period of time (last year, South Africa attracted some 10 million tourists for the entire year). With such an influx over a competition period, the waste, energy and water consumption implications are significant. Building capacity and supporting socio-economic development goals can be achieved through early planning associated with sourcing and procurement, skills training, job creation and business opportunities.

VANOC sought solutions to such challenges by seeking opportunities for volunteerism, co-op and internships and staff loans from other organizations in the community or region. VANOC provided job completion and job-transition planning support services for staff over the last two years of the project cycle to reduce the potentially negative social impacts after the event’s completion.

The event worked through many challenges on its journey to achieve some unprecedented and extraordinary goals. VANOC considers that it was successful as a result of:

Starting early in the seven-year life cycle, seeking partnerships and collaboration with organizations, the government and corporate partners. Thinking of lasting legacies helped to prepare a comprehensive and shared plan. Tapping into the zeal and ingenuity of staff and volunteers. Maintaining sustainability as a corporate value and individual performance measure for everyone in the Organizing Committee. With strong leadership and support from the board and senior management, a practical approach to managing financial resources led to staff being empowered to deliver on the sustainability commitments in innovative and practical ways.

Annual performance GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) and stakeholder engagement helped to define and communicate the scope of responsibilities in regard to sustainability – both internally and externally. By engaging regularly with stakeholders and establishing constructive links, the organization was able to develop an adaptive approach enabling it to be responsive when necessary.

Similar to the hosting of major sporting events, global companies must apply similar criteria to address their sustainability issues. It is not enough to talk; walking the talk is what it is all about. First and foremost, oversight of an organizing entity is indispensable to ensuring governance and consistency around the implementation of the sustainability strategy. High visibility needs to be given by the organizing entity to its sustainability commitments, plans and actual performance. This information should be readily available to internal and external stakeholders through communications including websites and other media. Strategies to support low environmental footprint, high social inclusion and strong economic development can be addressed with consistency through integrated planning and management systems, protocols and standards. For best results, corporate communications, monitoring and reporting must be conducted regularly through the strategy life cycle to ensure accountability, transparency and responsiveness. All of this necessitates significant lead time to incorporate sustainability considerations into strategic, financial and program plans. Cooperation can be enhanced by seeking dialogue with stakeholders and partnerships at various levels.

IMD research reveals the single biggest barriers to aligning organizations behind sustainability strategies as short term or fixed mindsets, and significant knowledge gaps in corporate organizations about how process innovation and behavioral change might contribute to both being successful with such strategies but also reaping the opportunities (and not only the risks) that sustainability presents. Global sporting events clearly struggle with similar challenges. Yet these are aspects over which each and every organization has control.

Dr Aileen Ionescu-Somers directs IMD’s Center for Corporate Sustainability Management, a membership driven research and learning initiative. Learn more at www.imd.ch/csm.

Ann Duffy is the Corporate Sustainability Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and President of The Ann Duffy Group. She can be reached by email at ann@annduffygroup.com.