Environmental performance will be measured and eco-friendly actions will be promoted during this year’s International Canoe Federation Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe World Championships in Milan, Italy.
The ICF flagship event will be the focus of an initiative that aims to set environmental standards for sustainable canoeing events.
The Developing Environmental and Circular Knowledge (DECK) project, led by the Italian Canoe Kayak Federation (FICK) and supported by the ICF, will be in full swing when competition takes place from August 20 to 24.
To mark World Environment Day, the ICF is pleased to highlight how environmental sustainability will be the forefront of this year’s much-anticipated World Championships in Milan.
Funded by the European Commission through the ERASMUS+ Sport programme, the DECK project was launched in 2023.
During the World Championships, the project’s operational tools will be officially applied.
Among those will be the Sustainability Rafting Tool, which will assess the event’s degree of sustainability, and the Life Cycle Assessment, which will be carried out by the Scuola della Sport and the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa and will evaluate the whole environmental impact of the World Champiosnhips.
Best practices, defined by the DECK project and called the ‘Green Guidelines for Paddling Events’, will also be followed to promote eco-friendly actions.
Anna Merlini, who leads the DECK project, says FICK is seeking to “trigger a real change” in the organisation and management of sporting events by “showing a friendly way to follow”.
“The project aims to reach all age generations in the big canoe and kayak family in order to rise the environmental awareness and to promote environmental-friendly actions in order to start to preserve our environment the that is strictly related to the quality of waters where we paddle,” said Merlini.
“Environmental sustainability is important at any level of an organisation.
“It should be taken into account at both the operational and governance level, and it could also ensure a more efficient use of available resources while also allowing for economic gains over the medium to long term.
“Unfortunately, it is often thought that environmental sustainability is only a cost, but studies tell us that this is not always true, and with simple actions it is possible to improve the accountability of any organisation, big or small, and to improve the stakeholder relationship.”
Merlini called on event organisers to increase their “environmental culture” and show “courage” to put in place best practices that can help protect the environment.
“As event organisers we need to understand that we are part of this ‘environment’ and the future environmental protection and integrity will depend by the action that we decide to implement now,” added Merlini.
“We are part and cause of these challenges, so we need to have the courage to experiment new solutions completely opposite to what we did until now and not be afraid to propose different environmental way.
“The DECK project is the first structured experimentation in the kayak and canoe family and can help to set the ‘starting point’, in terms of environmental performance, of any type of organisation, not only large institutions like National Federations or International Federation.”
FICK is working in collaboration with the ICF on the DECK project along with the Institute of Management of the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, the National Federations of Croatia, Greece and Slovenia and the School of Sport and Health.
For more information about the DECK project, click here.
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