IOC Publishes Sustainability Report
The IOC Sustainability report was published during the IOC’s 133rd Session in Buenos Aires (ARG). It showed substantial progress on the majority of the organisation’s sustainability objectives, only 18 months following the publication of the IOC Sustainability Strategy.
“The universality and global appeal of sport means that the IOC and the Olympic Movement have a special responsibility to promote a sustainable future for our world,” said IOC President Thomas Bach. “This IOC Sustainability Report serves as a benchmark to measure our progress on sustainability and to chart the challenges that are still ahead. It outlines the steps we have taken to make sustainability an underpinning principle of all our activities.”
For the IOC, sustainability has been at the heart of the construction of Olympic House - the new IOC headquarters building in Lausanne (SUI). The building is on track to achieve high international sustainability certifications. The organisation has also implemented its “carbon neutrality” goal by putting in place carbon reduction measures, while residual emissions are compensated with the help of Dow, the Official Carbon Partner of the IOC.
With the publication of the “Olympic Agenda 2020 – The New Norm”, which, through 118 reforms, re-shapes the way the Olympic Games are planned and delivered, sustainability principles are now present throughout the entire lifecycle of the Olympic Games. The reforms aim to ensure the Games are affordable, beneficial and sustainable by reducing their cost and complexity, minimising risks, resource consumption and waste, and – consequently – lowering their environmental impacts and carbon emissions. The goal is to ensure that the Olympic Games act as a catalyst for sustainable development within the host city and region.
And finally, the IOC has teamed up with expert organisations to ensure that the Olympic Movement as a whole benefits from state-of-the-art knowledge and best practices in sustainability. The IOC’s commitment to join the United Nations Clean Seas programme on marine litter has secured active participation from a number of International Federations, National Olympic Committees and IOC TOP Partners such as Coca-Cola, Dow and P&G. A partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) aims to help avoid the potential impacts of sports organisations on nature and identify ways in which sport can contribute to biodiversity conservation.
The Sustainability Report was compiled according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards – Core Option and has been independently assured by ERM Certification and Verification Services.
