GSS Champions of Sustainability

Assessment Programme

Are you a Champion of Sustainability?

  • How sustainable is your organisation?

  • How sustainable are your events, members and suppliers?

  • Does your organisation measure sustainbility in a sporting context?

  • Does your organisation have a comprehenisve system for reporting on its sustainable activities that covers all aspects of the organisation?

 

Currently there is no standard framework for guiding or expressing the sustainable activities of a sports organisation.

More and more sports organisations are looking to develop their sustainability programmes, but without a clear framework to express these activities they are struggling to show the true social, economic, and environmental impact they have on society and the planet, whether positive or negative.

Without a clear framework sport cannot express its true value.

 

GSS Sustainable Pillars of Sport

 

Global Sustainable Sport (GSS) has developed in partnership with a group of academics and practitioners a framework that will help sports stakeholders capture the true sustainble value of their organisations.

The framework is called the GSS Sustainable Pillars of Sport and is separated into seven pillars.

 


 

Click here to read more about the “GSS Sustainable Pillars of Sport”

Register for the GSS Network Alliance today

Register your interest here in becoming a member of the GSS Network Alliance and helping to drive sustainability around the world

GSS Champions of Sustainability Assessment Programme (CSA)

 

The GSS Champions of Sustainability Assessment Programme (CSA) provides a high-level evaluation of an organisation’s sustainability initiatives based on the GSS 7 Sustainable Pillars of Sport.

The assessment programme analyses an organisation’s sustainability initiatives across a range of indicators for each pillar, assessing what stage an organisation has reached, and comparing it with other sports organisations.

This assessment helps identify areas for improvement and sets the foundation for further development through the GSS Champions programme.

 

 

 

CSA Standard Assessment

 

 

The CSA standard assessment programme is a high-level external assessment of an organisation’s sustainability activities. The assessment asks a series of Yes/No questions to ascertain the areas of sustainability that an organisation is active in. The assessment programme varies in scale from starter, developing, developed, advanced and champion for organisations at different stages of their sustainability journey.

An organisation may not feel it is active in all of the 7 sustainable pillars but can still complete those that it is. Some venues, for instance, may not have participation programmes and would not include any response for that section. That is taken into account in the assessment process.

The CSA standard assessment programme provides a good guideline as to the areas of sustainability that a sports organisation should be focused on. It also provides a general comparative to other sports organisations and where an organisation rates across each pillar.

 

CSA+ & Bespoke Assessment

The GSS Champions of Sustainability Assessment Plus programme is an in-depth internal and external assessment of an organisation’s sustainability programme across the 7 Sustainable Pillars of Sport every year. It enables an organisation to assess how it is progressing on an annual basis and provides a comparative with other organisations and industry standards.

The CSA+ assessment programme is more in-depth than the CSA standard assessment and looks at the areas that an organisation has confirmed it is involved in and looks at the level of that activity and provides an assessment of each activity. The assessment also looks at areas that it has said that it is not involved in and makes recommendations on those. It also looks at a broader set of indicators (500+) than the standard assessment.

GSS also offers a bespoke assessment programme for larger organisations and events and also for groups of organisations like clubs in a league, or member federations. These bespoke studies can provide group assessments and comparisons and also long-term assessments of major events.

 

 

 

Register for the GSS Network Alliance today

Register your interest here in becoming a member of the GSS Network Alliance and helping to drive sustainability around the world

The GSS Champions Survey 2023/24

 

 

Global Sustainable Sport undertook a survey in late 2023/early 2024 to understand how sustainable different sports stakeholders were in the sports industry and what were their challenges around assessing and measuring their sustainbility.

Over 80 organisations particiapted in the survey from 27 nations representing 16 sports. 57% of the respondents were from Europe, 24% from Africa, 10% from Asia and North America and 5% from Oceania.

The Preliminary Assessment provides a comprehensive guide as to the areas of sustainability that a sports organisation should be focused on. It also provides a general comparative to other sports organisations and where an organisation rates across each pillar.

 

CSA-Starter Assessment

 

Only 25% of organisations that participated in the GSS Survey stated that they were active in all 7 GSS Sustainable Pillars of Sport. A handful of organisations stated that they were active in only one pillar. These organisations are very much at the ‘Starter’ stage of sustainability.

The definition of sustainability used by GSS is very broad and covers many areas of an organisation. It is frequently the case that no one person has an overall view of the sustainability activities of an organisation.

The aim of the CSA-Starter assessment process is to very much to look at all areas of an organisation ensuring that sustainability sits at the core of the organisation and that all aspects of sustainability are considered during the decision-making process.

 

 

 

CSA-Developing Assessment

 

 

A number of organisations that participated in the GSS Survey were quite developed or advanced in one area of sustainability but were either in-active in other areas or at starter stage. This resulted in a number of organisation being rated at the Developing stage rather than more developed.

Over 80% of organisations were at the Developing stage, or below, indicating how far many sports organisations have to go before they can be considered a sustainable sports organisation.

Many organisations surveyed had never considered sustainability in such a broad context and had very much focused on one aspect of sustainability, particularly environmental. One of the core assets of a sports organisation is it social value through community and participation programmes which are frequently either under-valued or not valued at all.

 

CSA-Developed Assessment

Just over 15% of organisations that participated in the GSS Survey made it to the Developed stage and beyond. A number of these were quite advanced in a certain pillar, or pillars, but were not Developed across all areas.

The CSA-Developed assessment is a high-level external assessment based on a series of Yes/No answers and is very much a guide to sustainability and not a definitive assessment. To fully understand the level of assessment at the developed stage an organisation needs to move beyond the CSA standard assessment stage to the CSA+ assessment stage.

The CSA-Developed assessment looks at a broader set of indicators and validates the stage achieved across each indicator and provides a more accurate assessment of the sustainability stage reached by an organisation.

 

 

 

CSA-Advanced/Champion Assessment

 

 

Less than 5% of organisations surveyed made it to the Advanced stage and no organisations made it to the Champions stage. Some organisations in the survey made Champion in certain pillars but not in all pillars.

To reach an Advanced or Champion status an organisation needs to conduct a CSA+ assessment across a broader set of indicators.

The CSA+ assessment looks at a more detailed set of indicators beyond the base set of indicators, from an internal and external position, and assesses the stage achieved by that organisation in each indicator. It is a much more comprehensive and advanced assessment which provides a more accurate and detailed assessment of an organisations sustainability.

 

Join the GSS Network today and take the first step towards a sustainable future in sports.

Register for the GSS Network Alliance today

Register your interest here in becoming a member of the GSS Network Alliance and helping to drive sustainability around the world

The GSS Champions of Sustainability Programme (CSA).

 

The GSS Champions of Sustainability Programme (CSA) aims to encourage organisations to become Champions of Sustainability in all aspects of sustainability across the 7 sustainable pillars of sport.

By becoming a Champion of Sustainability an organisation is not only become more financially, socially and environmentally sustainable, it is encouraging its stakeholders and fans to think and act more sustainably. The organisation becomes a Champion FOR sustainability as well a Champion of Sustainability.

There is no number one organisation in the Champions of Sustainability programme. All organisations are encouraged to become more sustainable. The Champion’s programme is both inclusive and aspirational. Every organisation should aspire to become a Champion of Sustainability and every organisation can become a Champion of Sustainability. If every sports organisation becomes a Champion of Sustainability then the big winner is the planet and society as a whole.

Join the GSS Network Alliance today and strive to become a Champion of Sustainability and engage your stakeholders and fans in creating a more sustainable future for sport and the planet.

 

Register your interest in signing up to the GSS Network Alliance today and together we can drive meaningful change and build a sustainable future for sports.



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