Update from PlayGreen: Green Teams are forming to make sports events sustainable!

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. The meeting was also attended by six international volunteers from the newly formed 'Green Team'.

Thanks to an ice-breaking activity both the partners and Green Team members got to know each other and their interests. Then, the Green Team members were introduced to the aims of the project as well as and the tasks they needed to fulfill in their countries to support the mission to lower the environmental impact of sports competitions and make them greener and more sustainable. The meeting agenda also included a 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.

On the partner’s side, a great discussion took place on how to engage and mentor volunteers. 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. Partners also agreed on the way the mentoring would be done which will follow the same logic as the green tool and be divided in four phases: analysis, planning, implementation and evaluation. In each phase partners will develop at least one workshop and one meeting with the Green Team. this was key since it is going to be the basis of the methodology to be used and transferred to other sport organizations.The team was also given the opportunity to play walking football, one of the most popular forms of football in Estonia and get to know each other in an active and fun way.

Browse through the gallery by clicking on the arrows. (Photo credits: Gertrud Alatare)

The second day kicked off with a creative task. PlayGreeners developed a video to launch the Green Team communication campaign and raise awareness about the project-. The idea of the workshop was to cooperate as a team and all the members contributed to create a video between all partners. This showed all of us that having teams from different countries does enreach the project. 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.

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, so that our Green Team members feel empowered and confident in undertaking climate actions through sports.

For more information about PlayGreen and for joining our efforts to establish a network of sports organisations that are interested in environmental sustainability, visit the PlayGreen website.

Authors: Niki Koutrou/Dirk Falken Edit: Mariann Bardocz-Bencsik/Cristina Bajet