What is the Athletics for a Better World Standard?
A key component of the World Athletics Sustainability Strategy, which was unveiled in April 2020, is to embed principles of sustainability into the delivery of all the events World Athletics owns or controls, like our World Championship events, and those we license or influence, like the events that make up our one-day athletics meeting series and tours and label road races.
To do that, actions around each of the six pillars of the strategy were built into two tools we developed to drive the strategy across all of our events: a Sustainable Events Management System, or SEMS, which offers best practice guidance in 15 key areas of event planning and delivery, and the Athletics for a Better World Standard, a system that evaluates, measures and scores an event’s achievement in sustainable delivery and in delivering the event in alignment with the six pillars that frame our strategy.
The ABW Standard consists of 55 action areas that address all levels of event delivery - including procurement, waste management, energy, food and water management, travel and accommodation planning. Diversity, accessibility and inclusion of staff and volunteers is also addressed. So is ensuring the health, safety and wellbeing of all participants and stakeholders. Another key aspect is partner, host city and athlete engagement in sustainability initiatives and concludes with guidance on monitoring, reporting and finally communicating about organisers' efforts and ambitions.
The standard is tiered, with platinum, gold, silver, bronze and recognised event achievement levels that will eventually have to be met as part of the evaluation process of all World Athletics-licensed events from 2024. Cities bidding to host upcoming World Athletics Championship events, for which bids launched from the second half of 2023, will be required to commit to a gold level achievement, making sustainability a core feature of all future World Athletics championships events.
The standard is also scalable so that any event at any level, from a local parkrun or club track and field meeting to a national or world championship, should be able to achieve the highest standard of sustainable event achievement.
The World Athletics Sustainability Strategy was the foundation of the management system we put together to ensure that sustainability is firmly embedded in our events. That system achieved ISO 20121 Sustainable Event certification in April 2023, an important milestone that lent credibility to our efforts and illustrated that the path we’re creating is the right one. That certified system also includes our Athletics for a Better World Standard.
Since it was unveiled in December 2021, organisers of nearly 300 one-day competition series events and label road races have been introduced to the system. Several dozen piloted the system and standard in 2022 and more than 100 piloted portions of it in 2023, providing valuable input prior to its implementation from January 1, 2024.
The system is also being incorporated into the delivery of all World Athletics Championships and increasingly into all World Athletics Series events.
Organisers of the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 were the first local organising committee to fully embrace the Athletics for a Better World standard, giving it a full throttle test run at the recently held event in the Hungarian capital. Organisers of the World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 24, announced and delivered upon their strong ambitions by achieving the Standard's platinum level. Planning meetings with sustainability leads of the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo are already underway.
Implementation from 2024
Implementation of the Athletics for a Better World Standard will have different objectives, depending on the event category.
Annually held events, such as those that are part of the Wanda Diamond League, the Continental Tour or Label Road Race series, will be able to set longer term targets and objectives and chart their progress year-on-year. World Athletics championship events will focus on both strong delivery and the sustainability legacy they create for their host venues and cities.
In 2024, its inaugural year, events will not be asked to meet a certain achievement level but will be required to begin utilising the ABW Standard and embedding it into their delivery, and to target 40 points, the Recognised Event level. Events that have participated in the system's webinar series since December 2021 or requested one-to-one guidance from World Athletics should have the know-how and advice necessary to meet that threshold in 2024. Final pre-implemation webinars were held on 5-6 December 2023, to ensure that organisers have the guidance and tools needed to be able to achieve the Recognised Event achievement level. Organisers of more than 150 events participated. Additional webinars and workshops will be scheduled throughout 2024.
Reporting and evaluations
The ABW Standard is self-reporting via a web-based reporting platform launched in January 2024. Once submitted that reporting will be reviewed and evaluated by the World Athletics sustainability team, with includes international recognised experts in the sport and sustainability space. Select audits may also include on-site visits and follow-up virtual meetings. If you are an organiser who missed the platform's introduction webinar in January, please get in touch via email to sustainability@worldathletics.org to request login details. A tutorial on setting up an account will also be provided.
An Excel version of the Athletics for a Better World Standard reporting form, which like the online platform includes the scoring methodology, performance requirements and guidance notes, is also available. Event organisers can request the latest version via email to sustainability@worldathletics.org.
The platform asks organisers to chart two point tallies, Points targeted and Points Requested.
- The Points Targeted total serves two purposes: the first, to help organisers map their ambitions; and the second, to inform World Athletics of an event's ambitions. World Athletics will try its best to organise on-site third party verification for all events targeting gold or platinum achievement levels. At least three months advance notice is required to schedule a visit by a third party verification auditor.
- The Points Requested total indicates the points organisers feel should ultimately be awarded based on the evidence provided. It is that total that will be evaluated by World Athletics.
Roll out of an extensive best practice guidance section on the World Athletics website will begin from the second half of October 2024.
~ Upcoming workshops for organisers: October, November and December 2024 ~
To help get you up and running, we will contine to hold hold weekly World Athletics ABW Standard Workshops. These will be in an open forum format, designed to help answer event organisers's questions and concerns. The September and October schedule is as follows:
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- Tuesday 26 November - Carbon Emissions Workshop - 9am CET
- Wednesday 27 November - Carbon Emissions Workshop - 4pm CET
- Thursday 5 December - 4pm CET
- Tuesday 21 January - ABW Standard Updates for 2025 - 10am CET
- Thursday 23 January - ABW Standard Updates for 2025 - 4pm CET
Please contact us via sustainability@worldathletics.org to receive a meeting invite. Don't forget to tell us which workshop you'd like to attend.
~ Planning templates available ~
We have developed 13 planning and reporting templates to help jump start the sustainability planning for your event and sustainability teams. They are available for download in the Sustainable Event Resource Centre. To gain access to those resources, please get in touch via sustainability@worldathletics.org.
Last updated: 28 November 2024
