GAIA - Good governance and sustainability in sport practice

Environmental issues are a concern all over the world as they affect the lives of each one of us. The relationship between human beings and nature is a notion that has existed in all civilisations since time began. But the realisation that the protection of the environment was impossible without social and economic progress is the product of the end of the 20th century. As sport is an integral part of society, it cannot ignore environmental and sustainable development issues. As with any activity, sport both has an impact on the environment and is affected by it. Thus, sport and sustainable development are deeply interlinked and need to be addressed jointly. GAIA aims to create awareness on the topic and foster the implementation of good governance and sustainability actions. In fact, sport presents broad opportunities to promote environmental awareness, capacity building and far-reaching actions for environmental, social and economic development across society. Thus, GAIA objectives are: - conduct a research on the state-of-the-art of the inclusion of good governance and sustainability principles in the code of ethics of sports organisation in order to understand the needs and obstacles of sports organisations to comply with good governance and sustainability principles. - develop a curriculum on Sustainability and Good Governance for members of Sports organisations to act as Sustainable Good Governance officers within their organisations. - elaborate a training programme on Sustainability and Good Governance to provide members of sports organisations with knowledge and competences on Sustainability - co-develop with the final users a Sustainable Sport Governance Chart, detailing a set of principles to follow to ensure a sustainable and transparent organization structure - establish a network of informed and committed sports organisations, pledging to the SSG Chart and committing to adapt their governance and structure to as many principles as pos