FIS President Eliasch Appointed To Olympic Sustainability Commission
Johan Eliasch, President of FIS, is to become a member of the International Olympic Committee’s Sustainability and Legacy Commission, giving him the opportunity to contribute to the great work done by the Olympic movement. Following a personal invitation from IOC President Thomas Bach to join the Commission, President Eliasch was delighted to accept.
President Eliasch is a veteran campaigner for climate action for whom sustainability is a personal passion. Over the past two decades he has created The Rainforest Trust; co-founded the rainforest preservation charity Cool Earth; acted as the UK’s prime minister’s special representative for deforestation and clean energy; written The Eliasch Review on the subject of reducing forest loss; was the Chairman of the Net Zero Review Technology and Innovation Advisory Group at HM Treasury, UK; served on numerous sustainability-related boards such as the Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative, the Stockholm Resilience Centre and RUSI’s Food, Energy and Water Security Programme; and was a Member of the Council for Sustainable Business at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, UK, as well as the DEFRA Council for Sustainable Business.
As President of FIS he is working to ensure that climate action is at the heart of the federation’s strategy: overseeing a Sustainability Strategy to inform how the snow sports calendar is constructed and how major events are hosted; creating the FIS Rainforest Initiative to off-set emissions; and appointing a Sustainability Director to oversee these changes.
Speaking of his appointment to the IOC Commission, President Eliasch said: “The Olympic Movement enjoys a unique position in the world’s imagination. It is through it that dreams are inspired, passions ignited and new standards set. This gives the movement a unique power to persuade and inspire, which can be used for the good of our planet. The Commission has the opportunity to make a meaningful difference to global attitudes, and I look forward to playing a part in that.”
