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In April 2020, World Athletics launched its Sustainability Strategy for 2020-2030. The ten-year strategy is set to provide a framework to the organisation, its Member Federations and its event organisers on how to produce tangible, meaningful and measurable results on environmental, social and economic sustainability. The main objective is to protect the local communities within which the millions of athletes, both competitive and recreational, participate in the sport with the vision of becoming “the leading International Sports Federation in delivering best in class sustainable events”.

The World Athletics strategy has been designed in alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the IOC Sustainability Strategy and identifies three spheres of responsibility: World Athletics as an organisation (including its Member Federations), the events owned by World Athletics, and those which hold a World Athletics’ Permit or are licensed events.

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As an international organisation, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) takes its responsibility to protect, cherish and limit its impact on the environment seriously. FIFA aims to lead by example and inspire greater awareness and best practices in sustainability standards with regard to FIFA World Cups™ and FIFA as an organisation.
Since 2010, FIFA has been measuring, reducing and mitigating its impact on climate change as well as engaging with its stakeholders to promote awareness on climate change.

OBJECTIVES
Since 2010, FIFA has engaged in carbon management to improve the sustainability of its operations and events by:

• Estimating the carbon emissions of
  FIFA competitions.
• Implementing reduction measures,
• Offsetting its controlled and
  unavoidable emissions.
• Engaging with stakeholders to help
  raise awareness on climate change.

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Click here to download FIFA Background Paper

World Sailing (WS) has created a 'Special Event Sustainability Charter', a comprehensive list of sustainability requirements for the largest sailing events in the world that World Sailing sanctions. WS is a participant of the UN Sports for Climate Action Framework and a partner of the IOC and UN Environment on campaigns related to Ocean Health including the Clean Seas initiative fighting plastic pollution in our oceans.
The Special Event Charter was launched in 2019 with the support of their Special Event. Sail GP, which, together with The Ocean Race and World Match Racing Tour are among the first signatories. While all special events can sign up voluntarily at any stage, all 'Special Events' will eventually be contractually obliged to sign when their contracts are due for renewal.

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World Rowing has set new sustainability goals for 2020-2024 with an updated and comprehensive approach to sustainability.
After a pledge to protect world heritage sites designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO),a partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to protect fresh water around the world, and joining the UN Sports for Climate Action Framework, the federation is going beyond the environmental focus to include social aspects within their sustainability targets.
As defined by World Rowing, the intention is to shift from a “preserve & protect” focus to “enhance” and pursue a positive impact on the ecosystems and communities in which they operate.

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Over the last 20 years, France has been the host to 55 international competitions, climbing to the podium of the top three countries for hosting major world sporting events. Building on the national expertise, the French Ministry of Sports, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) France, and close to 80 organisers of sporting events signed a charter of 15 eco-responsible commitments to achieve the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games legacy goals.
As part of their commitment to create tools to help stakeholders carry out the transition into sustainability in sports, the French O National Olympic and Sports committee (CNOSF), with support of the IOC, has launched a dedicated platform to share best practices on sustainable development. The platform for “environmental excellence through sport” or RSO (Social Responsibility of Sports Organisations) is a call for all stakeholders in the sports movement to structure and promote their approach to sustainability.

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On the 2020 World Ocean Day, World Sailing presented a wide-reaching sustainability education programme in line with the federation’s Sustainability Agenda 2030 goal to broaden the knowledge of all sailors on sustainability issues which relate to their sport. This includes recognising the elements that can affect the sport and those which, in some cases, the sport can positively contribute to.
The Sustainable Education Programme was developed by the federation together with The Ocean Race and in partnership with the World Sailing Trust and 11th Hour Racing,
capitalising on the success of their own programme in the 2017-2018 edition of the race.
This new programme is tailored to age groups 6-8yrs, 8-10yrs and 10-12yrs to be delivered at a grass roots level in order to create awareness among the younger sailor groups and inform better choices.

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The world governing body for cycling became the first sports federation to receive the EDGE Certification Seal for gender equality on 23 October 2019.
After conducting a detailed internal assessment and undergoing an independent third-party verification process where the organization stands in terms of gender balance across a variety of metrics, the UCI obtained Edge Assess, the first of three-tiered levels.
The UCI is currently working toward the second level of certification, EDGE Move.
The next steps of the process include defining and implementing internal policies concerning:

• Work flexibility
• Promotion of diversity and integration
• Pay equity
• Prevention of all form of harassment in the workplace

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The International Surfing Association (ISA) formally acknowledged sustainability as a core value of the federation on World Environment Day 2018 as part of their pledge to the IOC and UN Clean Seas
campaign.

As an organisation with strong ties to the ocean, the ISA looks to inspire, educate and empower surfing communities around the world to become ambassadors of the ocean and sustainability.

Through the ISA World Championships, the federation found a unique opportunity to engage their athletes, National Federations, organising committees, and sponsors in their commitment to sustainability. Through education and empowerment, the federation has focused on three areas:

• Reducing plastic waste
• Alignement of commitment to sustainability
• Athlete engagement in sustainability initiatives and educational programmes for ocean conservation

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World Archery, a signatory of the UN Sports for Climate Action framework, has embarked on a mission to reassess their operations to find ways in which daily decisions and actions are contributing factors to a more sustainable sport.
At a federation level, every action can have a direct impact but also hold a highly symbolic power and deliver a strong message of awareness and motivation to all stakeholders.
World Archery’s impact assessment has identified, and therefore set their focus on, three key areas:

• Water
• Transportation
• Waste management

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World Rugby launched its “Accelerating the Global Development of Women in Rugby 2017-2025" development strategy in order to position itself as a global leader in sport where women have equity on and off the field with representation and participation across all levels of rugby by 2025.
The strategy is built around five pillars:

• Sustainable growth in participation: continuing successful grassroot programs such as "Get into Rugby” for entry level and the development of coaches, match officials and medical staff to accommodate for this growth and developing toolkits, such as the Women Coaching Rugby Toolkit, to support member federations in growing female participation across the sport.
• High Performance Quality Competitions: ensuring the sport can deliver high-quality competitions at every level and across all different formats of the sport with a high entertainment value. The focus is set on both domestic and international competitions.
• Inspirational Leadership on and off the field: mandating that World Rugby’s board, committees, working groups and senior management levels should reflect best practices in terms of female representations
• Profile with Impact Inspiring Engagement: working to attract female viewers and fans through marketing and media initiatives using communication across the board and enhancing the portrayal of women in rugby on all communication platforms.
• Strategic Sustainable Investment Partners: ensuring economic sustainability by focusing on new revenue streams and creating new long-term commercial and non-commercial partnerships to support the development and profitability of women in rugby and maximizing the commercial value of the sport by ensuring broadcasting visibility through all commercial deals.

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