ISO 20121 wins at Eurovision

Nobody ever suggested that turning the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest, which brought more than 100 000 visitors to the city of Malmo (Sweden), into a sustainable event would be Simple.

Making Eurovision sustainable was no easy feat. There are food and beverages to consider, transport, energy, waste disposal and much more. Armed, however, with just ISO 20121 and the belief that doing the right thing should be easy Eurovision decided to go for it. The result: a positive and inspiring experience.
Eurovision decided to use ISO 20121 because it was an opportunity for the City of Malmö to enhance its profile as a green destination. The standard was a tool that would help the project managers highlight sustainability issues in the communication with partners and procurement services.
In Malmo they believe that doing the right thing should be easy, so they made “acting sustainably” stress-free for participants and staff with the following initiatives:

• Transport that flows: they ensured free and easy public transportation for all delegates and the press, and encouraged visitors to take the train to the arena.
• Ecolicious food: they served, recommended and promoted ecological and locally produced food.
• Tippy tap water: they handed out refillable bottles to press and delegates, and made sure water taps were easily available in key locations.
• Recycle it: they made recycling easy for participants.
• Education: they taught all volunteers (550 persons) about sustainability and how to become role models

E biggest challenge for them was to think of measurable goals when defining social and economic sustainability.

Main results and impacts

• Implementation of a new ticket system for public transport that helped avoid long queues and hustle
• Development of a new recycling system for events, which they plan to re-use in the future
• 80 000 cups of ecological and fair-trade coffee served
• Use of refillable tap-water bottles, which have 1 000 times less impact on the environment than factory-bottled water

 Article Credits: ISO focus

Image Credits: Vladstudios