Aim of the project
With the project “Be Active for Greener Sport (BAGS)”, we want to raise awareness on the deep connection between environment and sport, supporting new attitudes in the sport field at the grassroots level and beyond.
BAGS wants to promote a behavioural change, by raising awareness on the topic and building the capacity of sport clubs and organizations to put in place sustainable measures when organizing trainings, competitions, and events. The connection between sport and environment will also serve as an attractor for volunteers, passionate for this topic and who are not sport field members or who have left sport fields for several reasons. Being engaged in the protection of the environment, volunteers will get closer to the sport field, by starting to see it from different points of view. This would like to be a first step to increase participation in sport, which is particularly relevant nowadays, after a year in which sport practices have been highly reduced due to COVID-19 measures.
Starting from good practices
We will start from previous experiences and in particular on the good practice developed by ENGSO and its partners with the project Play Green.
With Play Green partners worked on a guide on environmental volunteering in sport, a study on environmental volunteering in sports as a tool to tackle climate change and Pedagogical material on how to green sport events.
Starting from the outcomes of “Play Green” we will test its tools in our countries and in different sport disciplines see and in different sport moments (including trainings and sport events) to see how the practice can be readjusted to become transferable and what is the response from the field. The testing phase will allow for the collection of feedbacks and the development of sustainable measures for the clubs involved. This information will be used to prepare video pills that shared online will contribute to raise awareness among the general public on the topic and will give practical advices to sport filed members who want to start following sustainable path.
The project flow in three main phases
The project will be de developed through three main phases:
- Preparation phase
- Implementation
- Follow up phase and closing
The preparation phase – During the preparation phase partners will create all the documents and template which will serve for the management of the project and to set the collections of practices and measures. A kick of meeting will take place in Rome (Between August and September 2022).
The implementation phase – each partner organizations will identify 6 participants within the organizations and their network. The participants will be coaches, teachers, volunteers, managers. All together they will be the BAGS team of 26 members representing 3 countries and from at least 5 different disciplines. This team will be involved into a transnational meeting in Sedavì (Valencia) during which they will be trained and equipped on the use of the Green Tool, they will share eventual practices they already develop into the sustainability field and will also be trained on how to attract and engage volunteers to the sport field.
At the end of the meeting, the Bags team members will go back to their counties and clubs/organizations and will be committed to test the tools acquired into their daily work with the purpose to realize activity which green their practices.
The follow up phase – the measure and practices (for green events and attract volunteers) will be collected, tested and adjusted and will be translated into communication materials having the purpose to give practical advises to other sport clubs and organizations willing to use tools to support environmental sustainability in their field.
The main outcomes will be presented during a final event (in Bucharest) in which there will be two representatives from each partner organization plus representatives of local clubs and organizations, schools and local authorities to present the project results and share with them the policy on the environmental sustainability produced.