[Source: AIPH] The AIPH 2021 International Green City conference brought together a worldwide audience of professionals, organisations, city councils and government administrations to hear how international experts on greening urban spaces have met this challenge. 

Incremental steps to reach for the skies

For the keynote speaker, Professor Rob Adams, his journey to greening the city began in the early 1980s in Melbourne, Australia, when he was an urban designer helping to write a 1985 strategy plan to make Melbourne “a better city to attract people”. Through incremental actions to improve the characteristics of the city that they already had, he spoke passionately on how they reclaimed street space, widened pathways, tore up the “asphalt and planted trees” creating active recreational areas with natural shading canopies. In 1992 there was a breakthrough in traffic routing, pushing forward the greening and pedestrianisation of the city. Melbourne is now recognised as one of the most liveable cities and acts as an exemplar of the battle against climate change. 

In a question-and-answer session after his speech, Prof Adams said a “political inertia problem for many cities is holding back progress”.

Cool streets and community spirit

For the past ten years, Vienna in Austria has been planning and managing its green transition. To put this into context, Vienna has 23 boroughs, substantial public transport infrastructure and a population that grows annually by 25,000 with 62% living in subsidised housing. Now Vienna is 53% green, and its journey has included the collaboration of the public and private sector, “shared visions, and strategies and a culture of working together closely over longer periods of time”. The family has been at the heart of the vision to create spaces for children to grow up and thrive, changing brownfield sites into living quarters, connecting to the city with green walkways and the public’s community spirit with urban farms. Artificial islands protect the city from flooding and are also weekend retreats to unwind. Cool streets pop up for citizens to escape the summer heat, with no concrete visible, only vertical planting and shady trees. 

Former Vice Mayor Ms Maria Vassilakou proudly took us on a virtual tour of the city that holds the number one title as the world’s most liveable city for the past three years. She is now serving as a member of the EU-Horizon Mission experts board on “Climate-neutral smart Cities”, advising the European Commission on the design and implementation of the respective mission. Ms Vassilakou added, “Urban recovery after the pandemic will pretty much rely on the transformation and the greening of public space to create cities that we love and new opportunities for us all.”

The need for better planning

Mr Peter Massini, Director of Future Nature Consulting Ltd, UK, presented an overview of greening metrics that are used in policy development, discussing some of the challenges and drawbacks and how effective they are in practice. When talking about the challenges in the UK, he said, “If we are going to make London a sustainable city, then its dense urban spaces have to provide space for people, space for wildlife, but hold functional benefits around climate change and public health.”

Empowerment for climate change

Empowerment is a vital tool, and green recovery needs a powerful voice. Ms Jennifer McKelvie, Councillor for the City of Toronto, Canada, gave insights from her experience in inspiring the next generation of climate leaders through the C40 Women for Climate mentorship programme. This programme builds upon the City of Toronto’s commitment to fighting climate change as participants work on self-initiated projects that align with TransformTO and the Resilience Strategy. Launched in 2017, TransformTO lays out a set of long-term, low-carbon goals to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions. The Resilience Strategy sets out a vision, goals, and actions to help Toronto survive, adapt, and thrive in the face of any challenge, particularly climate change.

For the love of nature

Prof. Tim Beatley, the founder of Biophilic Cities, USA, explained the power of community in making cities more nature focussed and the influence of biophilia in inspiring change. He poignantly pointed out that cities disconnect from nature, and we urgently need to find ways to reconnect. He gave examples of biodiverse activities across the globe where people are actively pursuing wildlife habitats in the buildings of city centres.

Ms Ingrid Coetzee, Director of Biodiversity, Nature & Health for ICLEI Africa, described the organisation’s projects on mainstreaming nature, its benefits, and nature-based solutions into urban planning and decision-making in cities and city-regions thereby helping them become healthier, and more resilient and liveable places. She said we should be “flicking on the green switch” as a top priority for the planet, humanity and society”.  

Green City tools

Dr Audrey Timm, Technical Advisor to AIPH, presented the  latest update of the AIPH 2020 Green City Guidelines – a digital resource providing evidence that supports innovative policy and practice in green cities. It has themes on Green Neighbourhoods, Green Streets, Green Buildings, and case studies on Green Cities.

Green City case studies

AIPH’s Green City principles promotes the essential role of plants in creating vibrant urban areas in which people and businesses can thrive. We heard case studies from the following experts.

Ms Anne Jaluzot, delivered a case study of Barcelona, the city which changed traffic patterns, replacing roadways with living green, thereby increasing social interactions, and reducing pollution.

Mr Niek Roozen, the founder of Niek Roozen Landscapes bv, Netherlands, introduced the power of plant selection in dominating landscape performance, using Almere as a case study for motivating plant selection linked to function and the multi-functionality of urban greening.

Dr Andrew Hirons, Senior Lecturer in Arboriculture at Myerscough College, UK, explained the science of tree selection for city landscapes and how essential this is to creating resilience in our urban forests. He also stressed how vital plant health is, and the careful management of each tree and shrub in situ is essential for the survival of green spaces in city landscapes.  

AIPH Green City Chair, Mr Bill Hardy brought to focus the AIPH Green City initiative and how the content of this conference programme integrates with the AIPH vision as the world’s champion for the power of plants. In summing, he said, “Today there has been a wealth of information and inspiration. We have seen how new cities can be built using Green City principles. We also learnt how older cities can be fixed to meet the same goals without huge infrastructure costs. We need to rethink our streets, and make green spaces for people, not parking for cars.”

All recordings are available to watch here https://bit.ly/3u5vcAA

Green Cities Champions

AIPH is a champion for the power of plants, and at this conference, we launched the AIPH World Green City Awards 2022, to recognise and celebrate every city that champions nature in its design. Visit aiph.org/green-city/green-city-awards Register an expression of interest to receive application documentation Register your interest in the AIPH World Green City Awards. 

AIPH is grateful to our AIPH World Green City Awards Partners 2022  Biophilic Cities, Cities & Health, Trees For Cities, The Nature of Cities, ICLEI CitiesWithNature and  Urban Land Institute. Thank you to our Media Partners, FloraCulture International and Host City.

Aggreko, the global leader in mobile and modular energy solutions, today announces a new partnership with Host City, the leading magazine and conference organisers for cities, rights holders, organisers, venues and suppliers of major international events.

As part of the new partnership, Aggreko will become the headline sponsor of the flagship Host City 2021 Conference, as well as Official Sustainability Partner of the Host City Americas Conference. Today’s announcement is the latest in a long and successful partnership between the two organisations, with Aggreko having supported Host City since it moved to Glasgow in 2015.

In addition to the partnership, David De Behr, Head of Sales - Aggreko Event Services, has been appointed as Advisory Board Member for Host City. David has worked within the events team at Aggreko for over 20 years, delivering innovative energy solutions for some of the biggest events in the world, including the Olympics and Glastonbury Festival. David’s role as an Advisory Board Member will focus on helping Host City to develop their sustainability efforts.

David De Behr, Head of Sales – Aggreko Event Services, said: “As the energy transition gathers pace, the global events sector continues to take the changing landscape in its stride, with events organisers continually adapting the way they operate to reduce their carbon footprint. As a key player in events, we’re proud to be supporting Host City in its efforts to achieve its sustainability targets.

“As an Advisory Board Member, I look forward to working closely with the Host City team. This partnership brings our two organisations even closer together after many years of successful collaboration, and demonstrates our collective commitment to leading carbon reduction efforts in event energy solutions”.

Ben Avison, Editorial and Conference Director at Host City said: “The topic of how to stage sustainable events gets more prominent every year at Host City and we are pleased to provide a platform for Aggreko to share its leadership in the urgent field of carbon reduction. We look forward to shaping the agenda with David’s expert input, and to welcoming him to the stage alongside other world class speakers in Glasgow and the Americas.”

About Aggreko

Aggreko is a world-leading provider of mobile modular power, temperature control and energy services. We are working at the forefront of a rapidly changing energy market and are focused on solving our customers’ challenges to provide cost-effective, flexible and greener solutions across the globe.

We harness innovation that helps us maintain a global reach and supply portable equipment for a wide range of uses. From unique commercial industrial projects, through to utility provision and humanitarian emergencies.  We bring expertise and equipment to any location, from the world’s busiest cities to its most remote places.

Aggreko specialises in serving eight key sectors: Oil & Gas, Manufacturing, Mining, Petrochemicals & Refining, Business Services & Construction, Events, Data Centres and Utilities.

Across these, our equipment offers maximum fuel flexibility, using gas, diesel (including HFO), and renewable fuel sources. We offer microgrid and storage solutions and are developing our offer to include more tools to help our customers adapt to the energy transition the world is experiencing. What makes us unique is our extensive expertise, experience and values.  This means we put our customers first, innovate and deliver leaner and more efficient equipment quickly.

Since 1962, Aggreko has grown from a small local business to a global energy pioneer. We have more than 6,000 employees, operating in around 79 countries. With revenues of approximately GBP 1.6bn (USD 2.0 bn or Euros 1.8bn) in 2019, we are listed on the London Stock Exchange (AGK.L) and headquartered in Scotland.

Aggreko draws together global expertise and technology development to go further for customers. The ability to provide power, heating and cooling will continue to open-up opportunity and create potential for individuals, communities, industries and societies all over the world.

Together and over time, we believe our services will make a massive difference.

About Host City

Host City is the event and media brand that connects the owners, hosts and organisers of major events.

Through its conference, exhibition and online publishing platforms, Host City shares best practice within the international community of international sports, business and cultural events.

Host City events are renowned for the highest level of speakers, content and networking.

Launched in 2014, the annual global Host City conference takes place in Glasgow each November/December. The first Host City Americas takes place online on 29-30 June 2021, following the success of Host City Asia events in 2018 and 2019.

For more information visit www.hostcity.com 

[Source: AIPH] The AIPH 2021 International Green City conference on 22 April is a chance to inspire people, organisations, city councils and government administrations to join this challenging movement and lead global thinking on the successful integration of nature into the built environment.  As part of AIPH’s Green City programme, the conference is offered free-of-charge to registered delegates.

Breaking old ‘progressive’ thinking after a global pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic brought issues around the planning of our urban spaces into sharper focus. Some people living across the urban landscape could escape the confines of lockdown and connect with nature to enjoy the benefits of good greenspaces. While for others, the crisis highlighted the fact that some built-up areas have insufficient quality greenspaces.

For our health and wellbeing, for tackling biodiversity loss, for our battle with climate change, new look urban areas are surely the way forward.

At the AIPH 2021 Green City Conference, you will hear about international innovations and advances in city greening from ‘Champions of Green Cities’ - a line-up of expert international speakers who can positively demonstrate that transforming our cities from grey to green need not be an unrealistic quest, but a practical solution.

Event Speakers who are inspiring change

“Transforming the urban landscape of central Melbourne – from grey to green” is the subject of our keynote speaker, Prof Rob Adams AM, City Architect, City of Melbourne. Prof Adams will describe Melbourne’s many actions over the last three decades to transform its downtown, starting from a realisation in 1985 that the City was going backwards financially, socially, and environmentally. The design was to focus on the movement of people and not vehicles. Since 1992, with the incremental and significant greening and reorientation of roadscapes, Melbourne has risen from the back of the pack to become, on seven occasions, the World’s most liveable city as determined by The Economist magazine. Many cities have followed what Melbourne pioneered, and it remains a powerfully influential exemplar for the battle against climate change.

Prof Adams continues his greening crusade and in a recent podcast he argued that recovery from the pandemic should involve refurbishing office buildings into apartments.

Carbon emissions did fall, and city centre air quality did improve during the Covid-19 lockdown from the reduced use of fossil fuel. While the latter may not be a permanent situation now, the images of clear skies overhead, and clear water in Venice showed that things can quickly change for a better environmental outcome. Ms Maria Vassilakou, Vienna Solutions draws from her previous experience as Vice Mayor of Vienna, and now independent advisor on urban transformations, to describe what makes a city liveable.

Ms Vassilakou serves as a member of the EU-Horizon Mission experts board on “Climate-neutral smart Cities” advising the European Commission on the design and implementation of the respective mission aiming at 100 European climate-neutral cities by 2030.

People reported feeling exposed to greater risk of infection on public transport during the pandemic, and during lockdown these systems were running at less than full capacity. Will this change now people look towards ‘returning to normal’? Mr Peter Massini, Director of Future Nature Consulting Ltd, UK, presents an overview of greening metrics that are used in policy development, discussing some of the challenges and drawbacks and how effective they are in practice. For the past 10 years he has led on green infrastructure and natural environment policy for the Greater London Authority.

Empowerment is a strong tool, and the green recovery needs a powerful voice. Ms Jennifer McKelvie, Councillor for City of Toronto, Canada, gives insights from her experience in inspiring the next generation of climate leaders through the C40 Women for Climate mentorship programme. This programme  builds upon the City of Toronto's commitment to fight climate change, as participants work on self-initiated projects that align with TransformTO and the Resilience Strategy. Launched in 2017, TransformTO lays out a set of long-term, low-carbon goals to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions. The Resilience Strategy sets out a vision, goals, and actions to help Toronto survive, adapt, and thrive in the face of any challenge, particularly climate change.

Prof. Tim Beatley, founder of Biophilic Cities, USA, explains the power of community in making cities more nature focussed, and the influence of biophilia in inspiring change.

Ms Ingrid Coetzee, Director of Biodiversity, Nature & Health for ICLEI Africa describes the organisation’s projects on mainstreaming nature, its benefits, and nature-based solutions into urban planning and decision-making in cities and city regions thereby helping them become healthier, and more resilient and liveable places.

Dr Audrey Timm, Technical Advisor to AIPH announces our latest update of the AIPH 2020 Green City Guidelines – a digital resource providing evidence that supports innovative policy and practice in green cities.

Ms Anne Jaluzot, UK, delivers a case study of Barcelona, the city which changed traffic patterns, replacing roadways with living green, thereby increasing social interactions, and reducing pollution.

Mr Niek Roozen, the founder of Niek Roozen Landscapes bv, Netherlands, introduces the power of plant selection in dominating landscape performance, using Almere as a case study for motivating plant selection linked to function, and the multi-functionality of urban greening.

Dr Andrew Hirons, Senior Lecturer in Arboriculture at Myerscough College, UK, explains the science of tree selection for city landscapes, and how essential this is to creating resilience in our urban forests.

AIPH Green City Chair, Mr Bill Hardy, Canada, will bring the focus onto the AIPH Green City initiative and how the content of this conference programme integrates with the AIPH vision as the world’s champion for the power of plants.

AIPH presents the Champions of Green Cities

Launching at the AIPH 2021 Green City conference is the AIPH World Green City Awards which celebrate cities that show leadership and innovation in bringing more living green into their city.

The ongoing impact of safety measures against coronavirus means that rather than a physical international conference, the event will operate using the multi-faceted Hopin platform to host this online international conference, where delegates from around the world can meet in real-time.

Register free-of-charge for the AIPH Green City conference to hear from city leaders worldwide and find out how your city can enter the AIPH World Green City Awards. https://aiph.org/event/aiph-2021-green-city-conference/

AIPH is grateful to our World Green City Award Partners  Biophilic Cities, Cities and Health, The Nature of Cities, Trees For Cities and  Urban Land Institute. Our Event Partner  ICLEI and our Media Partners China Flowers & Horticulture, FloraCulture International, HostCity and Pod Oslonami PL.

[Source: AIPH] The International Association of Horticultural Producers, AIPH, is the world’s champion for the power of plants. Through their Green City programme, AIPH uses knowledge exchange, advocacy, and networking to increase the quality and quantity of living green in urban spaces; motivating the multifunctional benefits that this delivers to people and the planet.

The AIPH 2021 International Green City conference on 22 April is a chance to inspire people, organisations, city councils and government administrations to join this challenging movement and lead global thinking on the successful integration of nature into the built environment.  As part of AIPH’s Green City programme, the conference is offered free-of-charge to registered delegates.

Our environment, wellbeing, social cohesion, and economies are all improved by intelligently designed green space. AIPH’s Green City principles promote the essential role of plants in creating vibrant urban areas in which people and businesses can thrive.

At the AIPH 2021 International Green City Conference, you will hear about innovations and advances in city greening from ‘Champions of Green Cities’; a line-up of expert international speakers who:

•             Share best practice and experiences of how they have increased living green in cities.

•             Present innovative thinking in how living green shapes city form and function

•             Describe case studies of cross-disciplinary benefits from city greening

Event Speakers

“Transforming the urban landscape of central Melbourne – from grey to green” is the subject of our keynote speaker, Prof Rob Adams AM, City Architect, City of Melbourne. Prof Adams will describe the many actions taken by Melbourne over the last three decades to transform its downtown, starting from a realisation in 1985 that the City was going backwards financially, socially and environmentally. Like many cities around the world the centre was emptying out in favour of the suburbs, and the car was increasingly dominant. With a breakthrough in 1992, Melbourne has risen from the back of the pack to become, on seven occasions, the World’s most liveable city as determined by the Economist magazine. Many cities have followed what Melbourne pioneered, and it remains a powerfully influential exemplar for the battle against climate change.

Ms Maria Vassilakou, Vienna Solutions draws from her experience as Vice Mayor of Vienna and independent advisor on urban transformations to describe what makes a city liveable.

Mr Peter Massini, Director of Future Nature Consulting Ltd, UK, presents an overview of greening metrics that are used in policy development, discussing some of the challenges and drawbacks and how effective they are in practice.

Ms Jennifer McKelvie, Councillor for City of Toronto, Canada, gives insights from her experience in inspiring the next generation of climate leaders through the C40 Women for Climate mentorship programme.

Prof. Tim Beatley, founder of Biophilic Cities, USA, explains the power of community in making cities more nature focussed, and the influence of biophilia in inspiring change.

Ms Ingrid Coetzee, Director of Biodiversity, Nature & Health for ICLEI Africa describes the organisation’s projects on mainstreaming nature, its benefits, and nature-based solutions into urban planning and decision-making in cities and city regions thereby helping them become healthier, and more resilient and liveable places.

Dr Audrey Timm, Technical Advisor to AIPH introduces the AIPH 2021 Green City Guidelines – an essential digital resource to support decision making.

Ms Anne Jaluzot, UK, delivers a case study of Barcelona, the city which changed traffic patterns, replacing roadways with living green, thereby increasing social interactions, and reducing pollution.

AIPH Green City Chair, Mr Bill Hardy, Canada, will bring the focus onto the AIPH Green City initiative and how the content of this conference programme integrates with the AIPH vision as the world’s champion for the power of plants.

AIPH presents the Champions of Green Cities

Launching at the AIPH Green City conference will be the AIPH World Green City Awards 2022 to celebrate cities that show leadership and innovation in bringing more living green into their city.

The ongoing impact of safety measures against coronavirus means that rather than a physical international conference, the event will operate using the multi-faceted Hopin platform to host this online international conference, where delegates from around the world can meet in real-time.

Register free-of-charge for the AIPH International Green City conference to hear from city leaders worldwide and find out how your city can enter the AIPH World Green City Awards. https://aiph.org/event/2021greencityconference/

AIPH is grateful to our Gold Sponsor PERA Events and AIPH World Green City Awards Partners 2022  Biophilic Cities, Cities and Health, Trees For Cities and  Urban Land Institute. Thank you to our Event Partner ICLEI, and our Media Partners FloraCulture International and Host City.

Pinnacle sailing league SailGP has partnered with Aggreko, the world-leading provider of mobile modular power, temperature control and energy services, as the championship prepares to become fully powered by clean energy by 2025.

Through the partnership, the delivery of all event operations over the next three seasons will become increasingly sustainable.

SailGP has already achieved the Carbon Neutral International Standard, joined the UN Climate Neutral Now Initiative and met the international sustainability standard ISO20121.  

“We are extremely excited to work with Aggreko – a company that shares our belief that innovation and technology is critical to drive the sustainability agenda and transition to a cleaner future, powered by nature,” said Fiona Morgan, Director of Purpose and Impact at SailGP.

“We look forward to working together to test and innovate on solutions to reduce emissions across our global events and share a blueprint of clean events so others can learn and follow.”

Starting next month, SailGP will deploy a hybrid solution from Aggreko that comprises solar power, battery storage and thermal generation. Further into the partnership, Aggreko will work with SailGP to lower emissions further by introducing green grid distribution and alternative fuels such as bio-methanol and hydrogen, as they become available.

Robert Wells, MD at Aggreko Events Services said: “At Aggreko, we greatly admire SailGP’s commitment to sustainability, inclusivity and innovation – values that we proudly share. This partnership brings us one step closer to delivering sustainable sporting events globally, and we are excited that Aggreko continues to demonstrate reliable innovative energy solutions for world class events such as SailGP.”  

Aggreko has itself committed to reduce local emissions and diesel usage by 50%  and become Net Zero by 2050.

SailGP aims to set new standards for major event delivery as the first climate positive sports and entertainment property.

As part of its Race for the Future purpose-driven agenda, SailGP champions “a better world powered by nature”, with a focus on accelerating a transition to clean energy.

Taking place in some of the world’s most iconic harbours, anticipation is growing for the opening event of SailGP Season 2, with the Bermuda Grand Prix presented by Hamilton Princess kicking off April 24-25.

[Source: SailGP, October 8, 2020] With a sense of purpose that goes beyond entertainment, SailGP will use its global platform to accelerate change to a cleaner and more inclusive future via a newly launched initiative: Race for the Future.

SailGP – the sport’s pinnacle league featuring the world’s fastest sail racing – will set a new standard as the first climate positive sports and entertainment property, while delivering actions and innovations that advance the global adoption of clean energy. Underpinning the plan is a diversification of the league, with the goal of immediately progressing gender and racial inclusivity.

Having postponed its second season events due to the pandemic, SailGP is building on the foundations set in year one when it launched a gender-balanced youth and community outreach program – SailGP Inspire – and set the initial goal of winning the race to zero carbon.

SailGP CEO Sir Russell Coutts said: “We have a responsibility and a purpose that goes beyond our compelling entertainment proposition. Sustainable development is paramount to the world’s future, and through SailGP, we have a unique platform to accelerate change. Race for the Future takes us from intention to action, with a real ability to effect environmental and social transformation within and outside of the sport.

“Having a zero-carbon footprint and a diverse staff is not enough; we’ve challenged ourselves to think bigger and broader. These issues go beyond SailGP, beyond the sport and beyond the industry, and we will strongly advocate for the critical adoption of clean energy, while serving as champions of inclusivity.”

RACE FOR THE FUTURE, PART 1: ENVIRONMENTAL

Setting the New Standard
SailGP is the first climate positive sports and entertainment property, going beyond a net zero carbon footprint in all business and event operations. To be climate positive, SailGP will both drastically reduce its carbon output and invest in projects to eliminate more than the remaining emissions, ultimately creating an environmental benefit.

SailGP Sustainability Director Dr. Susie Tomson said: “We are facing a global climate emergency that requires aggressive action. We have to take decisive and ground-breaking measures, leading by example not only in sailing but across the marine and sports industries. Through technology and innovation, we will be able to reduce our impact, and will utilize our events, network, partners and fans to showcase and inspire change.”

In setting a new standard for clean event delivery, SailGP will track and verify its carbon emissions through a partnership with One Carbon World, a global resource partner of the UN Climate Neutral Now Initiative.

Three of SailGP’s primary activity areas – on the water, onshore and in cities – have been identified to reduce the league’s carbon footprint. In each area, SailGP is partnering with like-minded and innovative companies to fully transition to clean energy solutions.

The remaining carbon that cannot be eliminated will be offset through One Carbon World and via the advancement of pioneering blue carbon projects, helping to maintain or restore critical carbon-sequestering shoreline ecosystems around the world. Blue carbon projects will be delivered through a partnership with Worldview International Foundation, starting with planting mangroves to contribute to the charity’s ambitious goal of planting a billion trees and mitigating 500 million tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.

On-Water
SailGP’s F50 race boats are one of the best showcases of clean energy in the world – they harness the power of the wind, traveling at 3-4 times its speed.

A key project to ensure both the race and support boats are powered by nature is reducing the carbon impact of the support boats – necessary to safely manage SailGP racing. Working in partnership with ePropulsion, a leading innovator of portable electric outboard boat motors, SailGP will transition 11 boats to ePropulsion motors for the start of Season 2.

SailGP has also partnered with Evoy, an innovative Norwegian company providing high-output electric propulsion systems for boats, to find a solution for the electrification of the league’s high-speed chase boats. Through a ‘pilot partnership,’ an initial boat will be upgraded to test at the first European event in Season 2 and, if successful, a plan will be implemented to transition the remainder of the boats to electric engines.

The overall goal is to have a fully electric support boat fleet by 2025 – removing the equivalent of 175 cars from the road – and helping to lead a clean energy revolution in the marine industry.

Onshore
On the shore, SailGP is shifting from technologies based on fossil fuels to 100 percent renewable power by 2025. At the core of the project will be temporary event power supplied by generators using clean fuel.

Though the race boats are inherently powered by nature, they require batteries to run the electronics and store power during racing, so it is essential that once onshore, these are recharged using clean energy. To meet the goal of the race boats being fully powered by nature, a new mobile off-grid solar solution was implemented in Season 1, working in partnership with Tesla and using a Tesla Powerwall system. SailGP will work to expand the initiative to power additional elements of its technical boat operations, including the electric outboard motors that will be used by the support boat fleet.

Another key onshore project is looking at the circularity in the production of the race boats. A partnership with ELG Carbon Fibre – the world’s first carbon fiber recovery plant based in the UK – will allow waste carbon fiber from the F50s to be recycled and reintroduced into the manufacturing process for the evolution of the race boat in future seasons, ensuring a responsible and reduced carbon manufacturing process. This will be a vital step in addressing the issue of global carbon consumption and raising awareness of closed loop recycling within the marine industry and beyond.

In Cities
Another new development for 2021, each of the eight national teams competing in SailGP will race with purpose. Every team will sign a Race for the Future charitable partner in their market, not only offering valuable commercial space on the boat to raise awareness for the partners’ causes, but also to secure funding for their partner through race results. The teams will work with their partners on projects that align with SailGP’s sustainability efforts.

New Zealand SailGP Team co-CEO Blair Tuke said: “SailGP’s global platform is a massive opportunity to accelerate change and shine the light on key issues facing our environment. Our partner Live Ocean will help raise awareness for the protection and restoration of our oceans, which are one of our best defenses against climate change. It’s really exciting that as a league we can bring focus on the urgent need for change using Race for the Future.”

Accelerating Change
SailGP will deliver actions and innovations that accelerate the global adoption of clean energy by investing in clean technology, serving as a collaborative innovation lab and inspiring action.

Clean Tech
SailGP will invest in clean technology solutions through both SailGP’s own research and design capabilities, and with the creation of a start-up investment fund. The aim will be to develop, test and bring to market new sustainable innovations that have broader applicability beyond the marine industry, as well as allow the league to reinvest in projects that nurture and protect the environment where SailGP races.

The first project is with E1 – the new electric powerboat series that was launched last month. SailGP is engineering and developing the initial race boat concept, which will allow the league to continue its push toward sustainable innovation and help drive forward the electrification of the marine industry.

Innovation Lab
The global championship will serve as an innovation lab and bring together partners, stakeholders, thought leaders and change makers to collaborate and facilitate advances in clean tech innovations. SailGP events will become the ultimate showcase, and through demonstrations, forums and interactive sessions, bring together innovators to shape the future of clean technology and marine sustainability.

Inspire Action
From grassroots youth programs to consumer campaigns, SailGP will look to inspire action among its audiences, partners and fans. Using its global events, social, digital and broadcast platforms, SailGP will create clean energy advocates of the future. In addition, 10,000 young people will be educated about sustainability through SailGP Inspire in event host cities.

ROCKWOOL Group CEO Jens Birgersson said: “Sustainability is at the heart of our business at ROCKWOOL Group, and SailGP provides us a global platform to raise awareness, showcase sustainable solutions and share our optimism around today’s sustainability challenges, especially in urban environments. We believe that a more sustainable future is possible, and that, together, we can accelerate change, drive innovation, and inspire current and future generations to take action.”

Race for the Future, Part 2 will be released on October 22 with details regarding female athlete inclusion in the league for Season 2, as well as robust initiatives to fully integrate diversity, equity and inclusion in every part of the business.

Sport brings benefits to physical and mental health, building a sense of community and purpose. But reconciling these with the business of sport can create a quandary – particularly when people are increasingly inclined to spend time looking at devices than participating in sport.

“Kids in America don’t play anymore; they sit in front of their screens,” says Richard Brisius, Race Chairman of The Ocean Race. “What’s their perception of sport and how do we attract them to it? Do I chase eyeballs and clicks, or produce something that’s relevant and educating?

“It’s quite easy for sports to think we don’t have much effect, but we do. Sports has for a long time has been about a healthy mind and a healthy body. Sport shouldn’t go too far away from its ideals. If we do that, if we just chase views at any cost, we will lose credibility. Business and sponsors are looking for sports that take the responsibility to do something for purpose, and that is sustainable.”

Microplastics everywhere

Concerns over sustainability are at the forefront of all sports today, and sailing is right on the front line of environmental change. Anyone who has watched Blue Planet will be aware of the beauty and fragility of the ocean.

“The ocean has always been our playground, our stadium. 70 per cent of the world is covered in ocean – very few people go out there, but we do, and we see it change.”

Ocean health has been at the core of the race since its launch of the event in 1973. “Conservation comes naturally to sailors,” says Brisius, citing the example of Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, Olympic gold medallists who came second and third in the last Ocean Race and set up the Live Ocean charitable trust.

The Ocean Race runs an ocean science programme, where the racing boats are fitted with advanced equipment to test water all over the world for salinity, CO2, temperature, microplastics and other indicators. The data is sent to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), UNESCO and other science databases.

“We go to places where no one else goes. It’s sad to say that we found microplastics everywhere across the world, even between Cape Horn and New Zealand, at Point Nemo – the furthest away from land you can be.”

They also have an education programme in 29 countries and run a series of 12 Ocean Race summits around the world to raise awareness of ocean health.

Hosting for a purpose

The Ocean Race goes to great cities all over the world. The next race, in 2021-2022, takes in ten host cities, starting from Alicante, going on to Cape Verde, Cape Town, Shenzhen, Auckland, Itajai, the US city of Newport, Aarhus, the Hague, then into the Mediterranean with the grand finale in Genoa, where Christopher Columbus first started sailing.

Because the event is hosted in the city for one to two weeks, it attracts a good number of visitors, creating good visibility and economic impact, says Brisius. It also brings ticket-free activities for citizens in race villages.

The next opportunity to host The Ocean Race is in 2025, and some cities are already committed and others in talks. Unsurprisingly, sustainability comes top of the list of evaluation criteria. “That’s important in the way cities bid for us. We want them to say how hosting the Ocean Race will change how they work around sustainability.

“The Ocean Race is about racing for a purpose. Sport should not underestimate its role in society.”

This interview was conducted at Global Sports Week Paris in February 2020

[Source: AIPH] On 2 March 2020, the International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH) brought together key industry players in the beautiful city of Miami, Florida – the cargo gateways of America.

The three-day event, entitled ‘Growing The Industry’ was coordinated by the association as part of its Spring Meeting, and supported by AmericanHort, to enable knowledge exchange and facilitate discussion on growing the ornamental industry.

Day one, on Monday, was the Expo Conference and it gave the international delegates the latest updates on forthcoming AIPH-approved International Horticultural Expos. Delegates heard progress reports from representatives for A1 World Horticultural Exhibitions including Expo 2021 Doha (Qatar); Expo 2022 Floriade Amsterdam Almere (the Netherlands); Expo Horticultural 2024 Łódź (Poland) and World Horticultural Exhibition 2027 Yokohama (Japan). There was also a progress report from B International Horticultural Exhibition Expo 2023 Kahramanmaraş (Turkey).

On this theme, Ibo Gülsen, managing director of IGMPR, the Netherlands, gave a speech about How Garden Tourism can benefit Expo and Legacy development and operation. An AIPH-approved outdoor exhibition gathers breeders, growers, landscapers, governments, and other invested parties to host these events that are open to the public and help to promote floriculture and the image of the host country.

In his talk, Gülsen gave a history lesson about the ancient gardens in Turkey, Babylon, Venice, Italy, and many other cities and cultures that embraced the concept of grand landscaped spaces filled with local flora and fauna. He spoke about how the same awe and delight continues to this day with more than 100 garden destinations in the world.

In the afternoon, the focus switched from garden tourism to urban living with the AIPH Green City Reports. Keynote speaker, Dr Tim Beatley Professor of Sustainable Communities in the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, gave a fascinating presentation about connecting cities with nature entitled development of the Biophilic Cities movement in the USA. The biophilic cities organisation has 22 member cities globally that participate in the program, and they meet to share ideas, failures and successes.

Afterwards, there was an opportunity for members to share their latest Green City news and talking about the developments and investments. The speakers were from Chinese Taipei, the Netherlands, Brazil, South Korea and Canada. For example, Taipei is planting one million trees, Brazil has been tearing-up grey concrete spaces and planting foliage in its place, and have a community program that offers bus fares in exchange for recyclable materials. In South Korea, they are planting 10 million trees and want to turn “grey into green”.

Featuring on the Olympic programme is still an incomparable way of capturing global attention, but sports will need more than this to hold attention and appeal in today’s crowded market.

“There is a need for a more entrepreneurial approach from international federations,” said Tom Dielen, Secretary General, World Archery, opening the IF Summit. “Our role is different to private companies. We need to develop sports, not just make money, and there we need to be creative.

“One highlight per year is not enough. You have to have event experiences for fans.”

One way of making sports more experiential is to make entertainment a stronger component of the programme. Dielen cites the example of the Superbowl: “After the half time show half the audience left – you wonder if the half time show is the real show!”

FIBA’s latest format places equal emphasis on entertainment. “3x3 Basketball has urban culture festivals with non-stop music,” said Ignacio Soriano, Head of Events and Partnerships at FIBA.

This event is open to cities and private promoters as well as national federations, who traditionally lead on hosting championships.

Sailing is another Olympic sport that is working more creatively with the private sector. World Sailing works with a number of “partner special events” – the Ocean Race, the Americas Cup, Sail GP, World Match Racing Tour, Star Sailors League and J Class.

“The special events have to sign a charter that links with our sustainability charter,” said Scott Over, commercial director at World Sailing.

“Sailing has a huge year this year – not just the Olympics, but also the first Offshore World Championships, a sport that may be included in Paris 2024, to be broadcast 24 hours a day for four days.”

Following the success of Beach Volleyball, which has been in the Games programme since 1996, FIVB launched Snow Volleyball as an opportunity to get into the winter sports market.

“Beach volleyball is influenced by the elements; we thought we could do that in winter,” said Nicolas Hyett, Technology and Innovation Manager at FIVB.

Hockey is another sport that has a relatively new format, Hockey5s, created for the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing in 2014. “New small formats are complementary to traditional ones,” said Hilary Atkinson, Olympic Games Director at FIH.

Creative event owners also need to increase their reach in new regional markets. Alistair Gosling, CEO of Extreme International said, “Saudi Arabia is just starting to open up, and sports is a massive part of that transformation. Tourism and sport go hand in glove.”

However, host destinations are increasingly at the mercy of health and environmental issues. “Contingency is the word of the day,” said Dielen. “The Rugby World Cup in Japan last year was a major lesson for federations in what to do when a match is cancelled.”

Earlier this year, the Melbourne Open qualifying rounds were cancelled due to rain and air quality concerns amid the bushfires.

“More and more this is a factor. And now of course the coronavirus is causing events to be cancelled or postponed.”

Since the IF Summit, World Archery have announced that Shanghai will host the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final in the Autumn, instead of the Stage it was scheduled to host in May.

Dielen said sustainability is another big topic facing event owners, citing the 2020 Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne as a great example of widespread use of public transport. “Although on the second Friday, children from all over the world including Greta Thunberg gave a climate strike, which closed the train station and had a negative impact on carbon footprint.”

Financial sustainability is also a perennial and growing concern for event owners and organisers – and not just the IOC with its “New Norm” strategy.

“We took a decision in 2018 to have conversations with venues to see how they can be strategic partnerships – turning it into more of a conversation,” said Matt Evans, Events Manager at World Rowing.  

Alex Molina of Formula One said ,“We have the privilege of asking cities for a fee. Often this gets political – people say its’s better to spend the money on a hospital. But it attracts tourism, brings exposure to lesser known destinations – and brings economic impact.

“We have a responsibility to incentivise kids to get into engineering and motorsports. You need to adjust your product to kids – we need to think in terms of entertainment and bring in more music.”

Esports is competing massively for the attention of the next generation of fans. “We need to make participating actively as cool as esports”, said Atkinson.

So how can IFs make their events more entertaining, sustainable, global and safe? “Governance is the key to helping with all these things,” said Dielen.

Dow has been a partner of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since 2010, initially working on providing technologies and solutions for the Games.

“Our products are everywhere and so they can also be enabling of and supporting the Games,” says Dr. Nicoletta Piccolrovazzi, Global Technology & Sustainability Director, Dow Olympic & Sports Solutions.

“We wanted to understand how we could use this partnership to go beyond and to integrate more our experiences and expertise of sustainability. That’s why we became the Carbon Partner of the Sochi Games.

“We are using sport to create an acceleration, to help us bring businesses to the table and to collaborate on CO2 reduction projects.”

Following its first tenure as Carbon Partner for the Sochi 2014, Dow went on to become Carbon Partner of Rio 2016 – during which Host City ran a digital communications campaign with Dow. And then in 2017, Dow became Carbon Partner of the IOC.

“We have taken this platform from a Games focus and a host country focus to now a global focus. It’s our global platform of collaboration on climate change that utilises our technologies, our customers’ technologies and engages the entire value chain on projects.”

95 to 96 per cent of products are enabled by chemistry, much of which enables reductions in CO2. For instance, Dow’s products go into insulation.

“What we have seen is the benefits that we deliver in terms of CO2 reductions from our products far outweigh the carbon footprint of when they are being manufactured. It’s a ratio of three or four to one of CO2 reduction benefits that we enable through our products.”

Paris 2024 is already talking of reducing its carbon footprint by 50 per cent, and there is much work to be done to establish how to achieve this.

“It’s really good that Paris focusses on how to reduce their emissions,” says Piccolrovazzi. “It’s very important for us to focus on understanding the impact and then reducing the emissions.

“Every Games needs to define an effective mitigation strategy. That is still being developed by Paris. Every Games needs to do something that is relevant for their own emission reality.”

5 million tonne CO2e reduction

[Source: Dow] By 7 February 2020, the cumulative greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions from Dow’s carbon programs with Sochi 2014, Rio 2016 and the IOC had reached more than 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), according to third-party verification by Environmental Resources Management (ERM). This compares to an amount of CO2 sequestered by 6.5 million acres of U.S. forests in one year.

In 2019 alone, Dow’s carbon program with the IOC reduced 655,000 tonnes CO2e of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the equivalent of 139,026 vehicles driven for one year. By 2026 – the end of the monitoring period agreed to by the IOC – the carbon benefits are expected to reach more than 7 million tonnes of CO2e.

As a part of the carbon partnership program with the IOC, Dow announced several new projects in 2019 with collaborators, including PETRONAS Chemicals Group, the U.S. Green Building Council, the AIA International Region, Firestone Building Products and Restore the Earth Foundation. These greenhouse gas reduction projects are part of Dow’s Sustainable Future Program, which harnesses the power of sport and science to accelerate the adoption of more sustainable technologies across value chains and upgrade business-as-usual practices locally. The project portfolio has been developed to address a wide range of applications, such as high performance buildings and infrastructure, reforestation, improvements in packaging and industrial efficiency.

“In line with our strong commitment to sustainability, the IOC measures its annual carbon footprint and implements various measures to reduce them. Thanks to our Official Carbon Partnership with Dow we have also been able to offset our unavoidable emissions for the period between 2017 and 2020,” said Marie Sallois, IOC director of corporate & sustainable development. “The results that Dow continues to deliver are now exceeding our operational emissions, creating a tangible, positive legacy.”

With a joint vision of accelerating climate action across the Olympic Movement, Dow and the IOC also announced in 2019 a new program to encourage and incentivize International Sports Federations (IFs) and National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to measure, reduce and mitigate the carbon emissions related to their operations and events. As part of the program, carbon offsets are offered to IFs and NOCs that have joined the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Sports for Climate Action Framework and implemented tangible action to reduce GHG emissions within their respective operations and events. Ten IFs benefitted from the program in 2019. In 2020, the initiative will be expanded to include submissions from NOCs in addition to IFs.

For more information about Dow’s more than 35 years of support of the Olympic Movement and commitment to sustainability through sports, visit https://www.dow.com/en-us/sports/partnerships/olympics.