Eco-friendly Sports

SUMMARY OF THE PROJECT

It’s inevitable that we have to do something about climate change. Not only reduce, reuse and recycle, but we can actively contribute to protect our planet and take direct action. Environmental     pollution is an enormous problem and the lack of recycling is an even bigger challenge. 

“Eco-Friendly Sports” project aims to promote sport and physical activities that not only contribute to better health, but also have a positive impact on the environment. The objectives of the project are: 

• to promote and develop new methods of environmental education through sport,
• to increase the amount of eco-friendly sport events organized,
• to generate public awareness about possible connection of sport and the protection of the environment,
• to foster citizens’ engagement in sport, but also encourage them to take action towards better environment,
• to improve the knowledge and experience of representatives of sport clubs and youth workers about the concept of eco-sport,
• to provide opportunities in the urban lifestyle to keep people’s physical and mental health and to significantly decrease the stress levels,
• to build a society that feels close and attached to nature will contribute to using natural resources sustainably and thus building sustainable cities,
• to contribute to the social inclusion of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Eco-friendly sports project has been co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European union. The project has started in January 2020 and includes 8 organizations from 8 different countries from diverse backgrounds – sport organizations and clubs, educational and environmental NGOs. Our ambition when starting this project was to find ways how grassroots sport can become an active change-maker and contributor to protecting our natural environment. Our high motivation has been turned into many activities and events to achieve our ambitious aim: research on good practices, development of new methods and publications, local eco-friendly sport events, meetings and conferences, social media promotion, videos and podcasts production and many others.

WE ORGANIZED 48 LOCAL EVENTS!

 PUBLICATIONS

ECO-FRIENDLY SPORT PROGRAM FOR YOUTH

The most important outcome of our project are newly developed methods and events involving environmental education through sport. Eco-Friendly Sport Program for Youth consists of 24 workshops and events – physical activities combined with non-formal education methods divided into 3 parts:

1 Sport and Physical Activities While Learning about Nature, Ecosystems and Biodiversity and How To Help To Its Conservation

2 Sport and Physical Activities While Learning about Global and Local Environmental Problems and Its Solutions.

3 Sport and Physical Activities Focused on Environmental Activism and Individual Action 

We would like to emphasize that all those activities have also been tested and implemented in 8 countries with very different ecosystems and biodiversity and involved  of all ages, physical abilities and knowledge about climate change.     

The publication is intended for trainers, sport experts, youth workers, educators, facilitators, and youth leaders who would like to promote environmental education through sport and organize Eco-Friendly Sport events and activities in their communities, schools, clubs etc.

SPORT AND NATURE EDUCATION PROGRAM FOR Trainers, Sport Experts and Youth Workers

Sport and Nature Education Program is one of the outputs of the project and aims to improve the knowledge of Trainers, Sport Experts and Youth Workers about the concept of Eco-Friendly Sports. The publication covers many topics that are useful for everyone interested in organizing eco-friendly sports activities in the future. We strongly believe that sports, and especially grassroots sport can have considerable contribution to solve environmental challenges at the local and global level as well. However, sport can also have negative impacts on nature and the environment, therefore representatives of the sport organisations should attempt to reduce this footprint.

In this publication there are available diverse topics related to the subject, for example:

How to organize eco-friendly sport events,

How to make existing regular sports activities or sport events more eco-friendly,

How to integrate education about the environment and nature into the sport and physical activities,

How can sport help nature conservation and other related topics.

In each chapter a theoretical introduction is available followed by the practical part for all those who are interested in organizing workshops about the topic for their colleagues or NGOs representatives.

GOOD PRACTICES COLLECTION: How to combine sport and protection of the environment

We started the project with an analysis and have been exploring diverse activities, events, and non-formal education methods of various sport, environmental and governmental actors that already combine sport and protection of the environment.

The aim has been to analyze, identify and collect good practices, recommendations, and resources about existing programs. The publication can serve as an inspiration for the integration of the environmental aspects into the sport, especially at the grassroots level.

In addition, we also conducted a survey among sport and environmental associations, clubs, and other institutions, which have experience with the organization of such events, and gathered advice, recommendations, identified weaknesses or strengths of the events or the methods used.

MULTIMEDIA LEARNING MATIERALS

Podcasts

We created podcasts about the different perspectives and topics related to Eco-Friendly Sports:

• podcast about our project;
• podcast about examples of eco-friendly sport events;
• podcast for trainers and sport experts on how to involve environmental education in sport;
• podcast for NGOs  in the field of environment and education about how to involve sport and physical activities in their workshops and events;
• Or  podcasts for individuals who would like to be active and organize eco-friendly sport events covering the issues like how to organize them, how to get funds etc.

Videos and Social media

We created videos and social media channels in order to raise awareness about importance of environmental education, as well as sport, and to motivate others to organize such events in their communities too! Follow us @ecofriendlysports