Last Call for Registrations: 8th World Conference on Sport and the Environment

If you want to save your spot at the 8th World Conference on Sport and the Environment (WCSE) in Vancouver, register now at www.wcse2009.com. The event will be held on 29 and 31 March 2009 in the host city of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and is being organised jointly by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Vancouver 2010 Organising Committee (VANOC), in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Exciting programme – top level speakers
How to achieve environmental progress during economic uncertainty. Which are the best models to reduce the environmental footprint in sport? How to apply green planning, design and construction principles for Olympic venues. What is the role and power of athletes to raise awareness for environmentally friendly behaviour in and through sport? And how to engage communities at large and the youth in particular in these processes. These are but a few of the topics that will be discussed in plenary sessions, panels and workshops and during armchair dialogues under the main conference theme “Innovation and Inspiration”. The list of speakers is impressive, featuring top-level representatives from the sporting family, UN bodies, Worldwide TOP Partners, civil society and the world of business and politics.

Vancouver – best practice for itself With VANOC being the first Olympic Games Organising Committee to have integrated “sustainability” into its vision statement, Vancouver is the perfect location for such a conference. VANOC successfully incorporated its sustainability performance objectives into its business systems. A tour of the venues of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games will enable the conference participants to learn about building processes, challenges, sustainability attributes and site-selection considerations. Past and other future Organising Committees will also share their experience in working towards “Green Games”. It was only in mid-February that UNEP assessed and praised the outstanding environmental initiatives of the organisers of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in its report “Beijing 2008 Olympic Games – Final Environmental Assessment”.