GAMES project concludes with conference at the 2024 Men’s World Floorball Championships
The Erasmus+ funded GAMES project concluded with its final conference in Malmö, Sweden, held alongside the 2024 Men’s World Floorball Championships final. The event showcased the project’s results and provided a platform to discuss its impact on sustainability in sports.
Karin Mårtensson, managing director of the Malmö Arena Hotel, which hosted the event, and International Floorball Federation (IFF) secretary general John Liljelund welcomed attendees before the packed conference schedule unfolded.
Tibero Daddi, associate professor at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies and the project’s technical partner, presented the key outcomes of GAMES. These included the first environmental footprint assessment of a multi-day sports event at the 2023 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships, the creation of a digital best-practices database and the development of decarbonisation roadmaps for the four sports partners: the IFF, Swedish Floorball Federation (SFF), International Biathlon Union (IBU) and World Athletics.
Representatives from all four sports partners shared their experiences. Amanda Emet, sustainability officer for the 2024 Men’s World Floorball Championships, joined a panel with Greentime’s Ola Ohlson and World Athletics’ head of sustainability, Bob Ramsak. Together, they delivered presentations on hosting more sustainable sports events and engaged in a panel discussion to expand on their insights.
Barbara Rettenbacher from the IBU shared how her organisation collaborated with Pledgeball to engage fans in sustainability efforts during events. Meanwhile, Tero Kalsta of the IFF discussed floorball’s role in the GAMES project and the evolution of sustainability within the sport and the federation.
A dedicated panel explored how EU funding can drive sustainability in sport. Alessio Novi (Sant’Anna), Magdalena Nour (Malmö FF) and Karin Book (Malmö University) shared their expertise on securing EU grants and offered insights into leveraging such funding to accelerate sustainability initiatives.
The conference, held on 10 December 2024, marked the culmination of the GAMES project.