Calendar

On November 15, the IF Forum will gather an impressive line-up of Sustainability experts which will discuss and share their knowledge around various aspects of this fundamental topic. Speakers include Maris Sallois-Dembreville, IOC Director, Corporate and Sustainable Development, Benjamin Lévêque, Head of Biodiversity and Climate, Paris 2024, Reto Knutti Professor of Climate Physics, ETH Zurich, and many more.

Created in 2013, the UIAA Mountain Protection Award celebrates its landmark ten-year anniversary in 2023.

Across its past nine editions, the MPA has showcased over 150 sustainability initiatives in over 50 countries. Each year one project is selected as the Award winner receiving both prize money and recognition through the UIAA’s international climbing and mountaineering network. The nine past recipients of the MPA have come from nine different countries including projects from Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America. These have included earthquake disaster recovery programmes, wildlife conservation initiatives, clean-up campaigns on Everest and projects which engage students and young people into mountain protection.

All projects submitted are analysed and scrutinised by the panel of leading experts on the UIAA Mountain Protection Award Assessment Team. A shortlist of nominated projects are showcased on the annual Award platform and through the UIAA’s communication channels. In recent editions, thanks to the support of main partner Bally Peak Outlook Foundation (BPOF), there have been three prize categories – winner, runner-up, best new initiative .

“The UIAA MPA marks a tenth year anniversary this year, which offers a great opportunity to reflect on the sustaining impact and value that such platforms offer in showcasing and rewarding real mountain protection action on the ground. The UIAA Mountain Protection Commission is very proud of its role in establishing and supporting the MPA over the years, with the grateful support from our sponsors and the immensely valuable expertise from external experts, too. We hope that the MPA continues to inspire our member federations and the general mountaineering community to implement their own mountain protection efforts – the projects promoted via the MPA show that they can and do work.”
Dr Carolina Adler, UIAA Mountain Protection Commission President

Submissions come from all corners of the world and focus on diverse topics such as those which directly study and mitigate the impacts of climate change, others focused on the protection of rare flora and fauna and projects which have sustainable tourism and engaging local communities at their heart. What unites all projects is that they are located in mountain regions, that they directly engage climbers and mountaineers as part of their solutions and seek to raise awareness about the diverse threats facing the future of the mountain environment.

WHAT PAST WINNERS SAY

“We believe that being announced as the MPA winner is a big vote of confidence from the UIAA. It is empowering and fills us with motivation to continue our work. We also believe it can inspire others to build a new way of practicing sport, and to be more responsible, inclusive and respectful of the mountain and its diverse cultures.”
Diana Alexia Gómez Cavieres, Asociación 7a Escalada, MPA winner 2022

“Winning the Award gives our work an international dimension, enhancing our project and offering us new perspectives. This important success brings a motivation to continue to strengthen the knowledge of our mountains.”
Luisa Vuillermoz, Fondation Grand Paradis, MPA winner 2020-21

“Winning the UIAA Mountain Protection Award is a huge morale boost to our volunteer team members because it acknowledges their efforts in addressing a solution to the issue of human waste in mountains. The prestige of an endorsement by the UIAA will provide a major boost to our fundraising effort.”
Garry Porter, Mount Everest Biogas Project, MPA winner 2017

Application for the 2023 Award is now open. Before completing the application form, it is important all candidates read the Application Guidelines. The application process closes on 15 May. Nominated projects will be confirmed in July 2023 and profiled between then and the announcement of the winner at the UIAA General Assembly in Trabzon, Turkey on 21 October.

2023 PRIZES

2023 MPA Winner – 6,000 euros prize money, invitation to 2023 UIAA General Assembly, dedicated press release through UIAA’s international distribution network, gold MPA logo

2023 MPA Runner-Up – 3,000 euros, dedicated article on UIAA website, silver MPA logo

2023 MPA Best New Initiative – 1,000 euros prize money, dedicated article on UIAA website, black MPA logo

All nominated projects active in countries where the UIAA has a member association must be endorsed by a UIAA full or associate member. Please refer to the list of UIAA member associations here.

“The Mountain Protection Commission’s MPA team is very excited to see what this year’s projects will bring. In these times of challenging reports from mountain regions it is a true pleasure to receive, work with, and evaluate the mountain protection efforts coming from MPA applicants. The projects celebrate and showcase the commitment, enthusiasm, and innovation that people around the world bring to protecting mountain spaces. All of us at the UIAA, along with MPA sponsor Bally Peak Outlook Foundation, encourage you and your group to submit a project to this year’s award. You will get expert constructive feedback and be showcased via the UIAA and Bally. And, since letters of support, especially from UIAA member federations, are a key part of the application, the MPA is an opportunity for your project to become well known and garner support at the local, regional, national, and/or international level even before the 2023 award is announced. Why not make 2023 the year your group applies?”
Mary Sanseverino, UIAA Mountain Protection Commission member and MPA Working Group chair

UIAA member associations are encouraged to circulate details of the opening of the 2023 MPA.

A media kit including high-resolution imagery, information about the Award, Award logos and social media posts can be viewed here.

APPLICATION

Read the Application Guidelines here
Submit your application project here
Visit the Mountain Protection Award page

PAST MPA WINNERS

2013 – Menz-Guassa Community Conservation Area, Ethiopia
2014 – Pamir Horse Adventure, Tajikistan
2015 – KTK-BELT Studio, Nepal
2016 – Mountain Wilderness, France
2017 – Mount Everest Biogas Project, United States
2018 – Community Action Nepal, United Kingdom
2019 – Alpine Leaning Project Weeks,  Switzerland
2020-21 – Fondation Grand Paradis, Italy
2022 – Asociación 7a Escalada, Peru

ThinkSport, together with the Sustainable Mountain Alliance (SMA) and the Sustainable Sport Lab (SSL) today announced a new Challenge which looks for innovative solutions that promote and enhance biodiversity conservation, with an actual or potential link with sport. The Sports for Nature Challenge succeeds last year’s Air Quality & Sport Challenge that generated viable and creative solutions for the sports world.

Click here to apply

Protecting biodiversity can help people to adapt to climate change, ensuring health and food security, with healthy ecosystems becoming more resilient to climate change. Conserved or restored habitats can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to address climate change by storing carbon. Ultimately, by halting and reversing biodiversity loss, a nature-positive world may be achieved by 2030 for the benefit of the planet and the people.

The Sports for Nature Challenge is powered by Sails of Change, a foundation dedicated to the protection and regeneration of biodiversity, created by sportswoman, investor and philanthropist Dona Bertarelli, her husband Yann Guichard, and her children. Sails of Change’s activities focus on the goal of fully or highly protecting at least 30% of global land and ocean by 2030.

“Often, we do not understand how fragile our planet is, our impact on nature, or what practical steps we can take to preserve biodiversity,” said Dona Bertarelli. “Sails of Change was founded to raise environmental awareness and to promote positive change. We’re delighted to support the Sports for Nature Challenge, which can play a vital role in spotlighting ideas, actions and solutions to help individuals and organisations become nature positive.” 

Sports organisations, startups, established companies, not-for-profit organisations, academic and public institutions and other stakeholders have until 7 March 2023 to submit here their solutions for the sports ecosystem within the following categories:

1. Impactful campaigns that promote biodiversity protection, increase knowledge and help enforce legal and statutory biodiversity requirements.
    
2. Innovative infrastructure, including architecture and infrastructure that integrate biodiversity protection, e.g. recovering rainwater; reducing waste water; building green rooftops; providing sustainable drainage systems; and phytoremediation using plants and its microorganisms to enhance soil fertility and recover contaminated soils.
    
3. Smart technology, including the application and promotion of digital solutions for biodiversity conservation, and the use of satellite data and artificial intelligence for biodiversity protection.

The Sports for Nature Challenge 2023 is particularly calling on innovative solutions relevant to the mountain environment, which is seriously affected by climate change and home to more than 85% of the world's species of amphibians, birds, and mammals, far exceeding the species diversity of the lowland.                                                                                

An expert panel will judge the entries, with the best ten applicants provided the chance to present their solution during THE SPOT (8-9 May 2023), ThinkSport’s international sport and innovation flagship event. The three selected winners will receive high visibility, financial support and the opportunity to further develop their proposals with interested parties.

ThinkSport President, Andrea Traverso, said: “Sport and nature are closely interconnected. Sport must lead by example and inspire action to reduce environmental impacts, being those linked to the practise of sport, the construction of sport infrastructure or the travel emissions from sport events. We hope that this year’s Challenge will provide smart solutions to protect nature, preserve and restore biodiversity, raise awareness and be the catalyst for further initiatives.”

The Challenge is closely linked to the Sports for Nature Framework, which was agreed to at the Convention on Biological Diversity 15th Conference of the Parties meeting (COP15) in December in Montreal. The Framework, which is a first of its kind, was already signed by twenty-three sports organisations, including the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as a founding partner, and the Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024. Co-created by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the IOC and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Sports for Nature Framework aims to deliver transformative action for nature across sports, by 2030 and beyond.

Sails of Change will play a key role in promoting and rolling out the Framework, working with IUCN to deliver programmes, toolkits and training. The new Sports for Nature Challenge launched today forms part of these efforts.

For more information on the Challenge: https://thespot.ch/sports-for-nature/

Click here to apply

Are you an athlete working to tackle climate change? Enter the IOC Climate Action Awards by 31 March 2023 for your chance to win some incredible prizes!

WHAT ARE THE IOC CLIMATE ACTION AWARDS?

The IOC Climate Action Awards are an exciting new awards initiative designed to celebrate and support the efforts of athletes, International Federations (IFs) and National Olympic Committees (NOCs) that are tackling climate change. It’s been developed in collaboration with three of our Worldwide Olympic Partners – Airbnb, Deloitte and P&G – which are each supporting an award (and giving away some amazing prizes and opportunities!)

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT FOR THE GLOBAL ATHLETE COMMUNITY?

We don’t need to tell you that climate change threatens communities, economies, livelihoods and lives. No industry or individual is immune – and the global athlete community is no different. With rising temperatures and an increased prevalence of extreme weather conditions it is becoming harder to practise winter sports, while summer competitions are now often taking place in intense heat and humidity.

As athletes and role models within your community, you have the power to lead by example and inspire others to make sustainable changes. And the IOC Climate Action Awards seek to celebrate that!

WHAT ARE THE AWARD CATEGORIES AND WHAT CAN I WIN?

CLIMATE ACTION X SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL

Are you an Olympian or Paralympian working to make your sports-related travel more sustainable?

Airbnb is recognising athlete action in the field of sustainable travel – whether that’s the way you travel to events, the type of accommodation you stay in, or your lifestyle choices while travelling for competitions. As a winner, you’ll receive a USD 7,500 Travel Grant, which can be redeemed on Airbnb.

Apply now

CLIMATE ACTION X INNOVATION

Are you an Olympian or Paralympian with an innovative project aimed at reducing your carbon footprint?

Deloitte is celebrating the athletes who are leading innovative projects that are designed to reduce their emissions. This could include an initiative designed to reduce your own emissions, or a creative way you have educated others about climate change. As a winner, you’ll receive tuition funding of up to USD 5,000 to enrol in an academic course in sustainability and leadership, to help you create more impact and grow your project.

Apply now

CLIMATE ACTION X ATHLETE ADVOCACY

Are you helping tackle climate change on a community level while you train towards Paris 2024?

Through their Athletes for Good programme, P&G are celebrating the athletes who are encouraging communities to take action on climate change by raising awareness. As a winner, P&G will give you a global ambassadorship and platform to promote your work, alongside USD 24,000 for a non-profit organisation that is working in the environmental sustainability area of your choice.

Examples of projects that could make you eligible for this award include awareness-raising at events or online, educating the community or your team-mates on climate change, volunteering or fundraising for an environmental charity, working with brands and sponsors on environmental campaigns, and organising or participating in beach clean-ups.

Apply now

I’M IN! HOW CAN I APPLY?

Check your eligibility for the awards on the IOC Climate Action Awards webpage, then simply fill in the application form for your chosen award. (Olympians and Paralympians can apply for more than one!)

Applications for each award are open until 31 March 2023, and you will be informed about your application status by September 2023. In addition to the individual prizes, winning athletes and organisations will be invited to an awards ceremony, where they will  be featured amongst other athletes, IFs and NOCs working in this area.

Apply today for your chance to win!

ThinkSport, together with the Sustainable Mountain Alliance (SMA) and the Sustainable Sport Lab (SSL) announced a new Challenge which looks for innovative solutions that promote and enhance biodiversity conservation, with an actual or potential link with sport. The Sports for Nature Challenge succeeds last year’s Air Quality & Sport Challenge that generated viable and creative solutions for the sports world.

Protecting biodiversity can help people to adapt to climate change, ensuring health and food security, with healthy ecosystems becoming more resilient to climate change. Conserved or restored habitats can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to address climate change by storing carbon. Ultimately, by halting and reversing biodiversity loss, a nature-positive world may be achieved by 2030 for the benefit of the planet and the people.

The Sports for Nature Challenge is powered by Sails of Change, a foundation dedicated to the protection and regeneration of biodiversity, created by sportswoman, investor and philanthropist Dona Bertarelli, her husband Yann Guichard, and her children. Sails of Change’s activities focus on the goal of fully or highly protecting at least 30% of global land and ocean by 2030.

“Often, we do not understand how fragile our planet is, our impact on nature, or what practical steps we can take to preserve biodiversity,” said Dona Bertarelli. “Sails of Change was founded to raise environmental awareness and to promote positive change. We’re delighted to support the Sports for Nature Challenge, which can play a vital role in spotlighting ideas, actions and solutions to help individuals and organisations become nature positive.” 

Sports organisations, startups, established companies, not-for-profit organisations, academic and public institutions and other stakeholders had until 14 March 2023 to submit here their solutions for the sports ecosystem within the following categories:

1. Impactful campaigns that promote biodiversity protection, increase knowledge and help enforce legal and statutory biodiversity requirements.
    
2. Innovative infrastructure, including architecture and infrastructure that integrate biodiversity protection, e.g. recovering rainwater; reducing waste water; building green rooftops; providing sustainable drainage systems; and phytoremediation using plants and its microorganisms to enhance soil fertility and recover contaminated soils.
    
3. Smart technology, including the application and promotion of digital solutions for biodiversity conservation, and the use of satellite data and artificial intelligence for biodiversity protection.

The Sports for Nature Challenge 2023 is particularly calling on innovative solutions relevant to the mountain environment, which is seriously affected by climate change and home to more than 85% of the world's species of amphibians, birds, and mammals, far exceeding the species diversity of the lowland.                                                                                

An expert panel will judge the entries, with the best ten applicants provided the chance to present their solution during THE SPOT (8-9 May 2023), ThinkSport’s international sport and innovation flagship event. The three selected winners will receive high visibility, financial support and the opportunity to further develop their proposals with interested parties.

ThinkSport President, Andrea Traverso, said: “Sport and nature are closely interconnected. Sport must lead by example and inspire action to reduce environmental impacts, being those linked to the practise of sport, the construction of sport infrastructure or the travel emissions from sport events. We hope that this year’s Challenge will provide smart solutions to protect nature, preserve and restore biodiversity, raise awareness and be the catalyst for further initiatives.”

The Challenge is closely linked to the Sports for Nature Framework, which was agreed to at the Convention on Biological Diversity 15th Conference of the Parties meeting (COP15) in December in Montreal. The Framework, which is a first of its kind, was already signed by twenty-three sports organisations, including the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as a founding partner, and the Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024. Co-created by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the IOC and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Sports for Nature Framework aims to deliver transformative action for nature across sports, by 2030 and beyond.

Sails of Change will play a key role in promoting and rolling out the Framework, working with IUCN to deliver programmes, toolkits and training. The new Sports for Nature Challenge launched today forms part of these efforts.

For more information on the Challenge: https://thespot.ch/sports-for-nature/

More than 80 top football clubs are today joining forces against climate change in the world’s biggest football campaign to protect our world, Green Football Weekend.

For the next 20 days, clubs across the top divisions are battling it out for the coveted Green Football Cup. But unlike other tournaments, it’s fan action that will decide who takes the Cup home, with fans scoring green goals for their club by taking climate-friendly actions - from eating a veggie meal to turning the thermostat down one degree or taking a shorter shower.

Fans can choose their activities and register their goals at greenfootballweekend.com.

The competition will culminate in Green Football Weekend on 3-5 February, when clubs will join fans in implementing changes by making their fixtures ‘greener games’, and some teams will wear green armbands to show their support for protecting our world.

Amazing prizes are up for grabs for anybody taking part in Green Football Weekend, including a men’s signed England shirt, tickets to Premier League Games, a voucher for a National Trust holiday cottage, tickets to the Football Supporters Association Awards, Football Manager 23 game codes, BT Sport app passes, and yearly subscriptions to children’s newspaper First News.

Are you concerned about climate change but not sure how to best express your concern?

Do you want to help make a difference and inspire change but not sure where to start?

If so, World Athletics would like to invite you to participate in ‘Rock Your Cause’, workshops on climate change communication that we're organising around the following meets:

• Birmingham Diamond League (May 20, the day before, time tbc)
• Turku Continental Tour (June 13, the day before, time tbc)
• Monaco Diamond League (Aug 9, the day before, 7pm)
• Zurich Diamond League (Sep 7, the first day, time tbc)

The aim of the workshops is to help athletes identify the most effective ways to speak confidently about the issues they care about most.

Monaco details:

• Date: Tuesday August 9th
• Place: Hotel Riviera Marriott (Meet Hotel), Saint Tropez Meeting Room
• Time: 7pm

The workshops will be conducted by Dr Madeleine Orr and Dr Daniel Sailofsky, noted academics and communicators in the sport and sustainability space and experts on climate change communication.

The workshops will last one hour and will be scheduled to not interfere with your pre-meet routine. Space is limited – if interested please RSVP to sustainability@worldathletics.org.

If the start time conflicts with a training session or your travel schedule, let us know. We'll try to organise small group sessions either prior to or after the main workshop. Let us know what time works best for you.

Public leisure facilities not only provide the essential infrastructure to our nation’s sports clubs, voluntary organisations and NGBs, but they are also managed by operators for the benefit of families, individuals and the wider community.

Therefore they have a responsibility to review their own environmental sustainability and reduce their carbon footprint. Community Leisure UK is supporting leisure trusts on this journey and will share what leisure trusts are doing to make public leisure facilities more environmentally friendly.

Angela Brown from Freedom Leisure will bring this to life to share experience from a charitable leisure trust perspective

Community Leisure UK is the national membership association representing leisure and culture trusts across England, Scotland and Wales.

Click here to register

We are very excited to announce that the 2022 Green Sports Alliance Summit will take place in-person on June 21-23 at U.S. Bank Stadium!

As the sports & event industry continues to rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2022 GSA Summit will showcase how sports venues, teams, leagues and corporate partners around the world are taking ambitious action on both environmental and social issues to create a more sustainable, just, and resilient future for all.

Learn how the scope of the sports greening movement continues to expand, including improved operational performance measurement, tracking and reporting in addition to commitments on equity and increased diversity across the business.

Together, we Play for the Next Generation!

If you have any questions and/or are interested in participating in next year’s in-person Summit, please reach out to us at matt@greensportsalliance.org.

Click here to register

View the agenda here

This year, tune into the second all-day virtual celebration of United Nations World Oceans Day, where exhibitors will dig deeper into the theme

’The Ocean: Life and Livelihoods’.

Click here to tune in