England 2018 targets sustainability

Article taken from World Football Insider.  To view article, click here

England World Cup bid chief Andy Anson says that sustainability is at "the core" of his team's efforts to host the 2018 finals.

Speaking at One Young World, the inaugural world youth leadership summit in London, Anson promised to match the leading international sustainability standard developed for the London 2012 Olympics.

"Sustainability has been at the core of our planning from day one," said Anson.

"It has to be if it is going to be part of the way you run the tournament. You can't suddenly introduce it halfway through the process. We will implement the leading standard for sustainable event management (BS 8901) which helps systematically deal with issues such as energy, water, transport etc., which was created here in England for London 2012."

Legacy and sustainability have been key components of planning for the 2012 Olympics in London and frequently extolled by LOCOG chairman Sebastian Coe. By contrast, England's World Cup bid team have until now been less active in promoting this side of their campaign.

Anson gave the bid's transportation strategy as an example of England 2018's sustainability plans in action.

He said the transport plans "will make it possible for 100 per cent of supporters to travel to any game from anywhere in the country on public transport."

In World Football Insider's first World Cup Bid Power Index published last week, England - who scored top overall - were given just 5 points out of 10 on legacy.

Sources close to the bid team have since been keen to emphasize the different ways that English football promotes legacy, including its wide ranging development program in Africa.

Anson's efforts this week to promote the sustainability features of an English finals sees a further effort in this Andy Anson's bid team are keen to emphasize the different ways that English football promotes legacy direction and marks a shift to differentiate itself with other bids which, with the exception of Indonesia, have been slow to emphasize their green credentials.

Anson added that his bid team had learned from the example of Austria and Switzerland, who served as joint hosts of the 2008 European Championships and "worked incredibly hard on sustainability."

"It is also possible to minimize the negative impact by carefully building sustainability considerations into every aspect of the event organization, which is what we plan to do," Anson added.

"We've been planning on this from day one of the bid and we're already in a good position because the majority of carbon emissions for a major event come from the construction of new stadia - and our iconic stadia are there already.

"We know that FIFA are constantly working hard in this area and, as we've said about all elements of our bid, we want to exceed their expectations."

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