After two years of work with Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment, it is wonderful to see the launch a new Sustainable Sports Programme by Darragh O’Brien TD and Patrick O’Donovan TD. The programme will help sports National Governing Bodies (NGBs) adopt environmentally sustainable actions across their organisations.
This is a fantastic example of Irish sport coming together as one team for sustainability.
The Green Clubs Programme features a comprehensive toolkit for clubs and offers training for National Governing Bodies (NGBs), enabling them to empower their clubs to engage at the grassroots level in areas such as biodiversity, water conservation, energy efficiency, and sustainable travel. The Sustainable Sports Programme acknowledges the uniqueness of each club and organisation, making it suitable for sports of all types and sizes, regardless of their activities, facilities, or resources.
Designed to be delivered through NGBs training will be rolled out to enable over 12,000 clubs to deliver real change.
Welcoming the Programme, Minister O’Brien said:
“The challenges we face to achieve a climate neutral society are significant. Communities have a huge role to play in this and sport is at the heart of community here in Ireland. This training programme builds on the success of the GAA’s ground breaking Green Clubs Programme and shares learnings from their vast experience.
“A key learning has been that grassroots programmes are more likely to succeed and be maintained when they are supported by the kinds of top-down structures that NGBs can implement.”
Speaking at the conference, Minister for Culture, Communication and Sport, Patrick O’Donovan said:
“I would like today to acknowledge the sustainability work sporting organisations all over the country are doing. The toolkit allows every national sports body to learn key skills such as identifying what to prioritise, the actions they can take in areas like travel and biodiversity and, crucially, how to implement and track these actions.”
To view the toolkits visit the Sustainable Sports Programme website.
For more information, please contact Niall McCaffrey (Director): niall.mccaffrey@ipsos.com
