FIFA Sustainability Policy - Case Study Example

FIFA Sustainability Policy FIFA Sustainability Policy Introduction FIFA World Cup is one of the largest mega sports events in the world that has a significant impact on the society and the environment. Hence, the staging of the event requires careful consideration to balance its sustainable outcomes. The sustainability of the event is of utmost importance, as several countries across the globe participate, and it significantly impacts the host country. Thus, FIFA and LOC collectively work to mitigate the negative impact and maximize the positive impact on the host country. The sustainability policy of World Cup FIFA has been developed on the basis of the information gained from environmental and social development programs. The policies are developed in accordance to global standards. It mainly focuses to address environmental concerns, environmental protection, and social development issues. The primary aim of this report is to analyse sustainability policy of FIFA critically and provides suitable recommendation about the critical appraisal. Therefore, the researcher make will assess these policies with respect to Triple Bottom Line (1997) and ISO 20121 standards. The analysis will mainly focus on the issues, problems, gaps and limitation of the sustainability policy of World Cup FIFA with respect to the theories. In addition, recommendation to improve sustainability issues has been presented in the report. Literature Review Triple Bottom Theory Triple Bottom Theory is three-dimensional performance measurement framework that assessing social, environmental and financial aspects. The theory is composed of primarily three pillars of sustainability that is called as People, Planet and Profit that was initially presented by John Elkington (1994) (Bowdin, et al., 2012). The Triple Bottom Theory differs from traditional reporting frameworks, as it incorporates sustainability elements, (environmental and social measures) along with financial performance (Werhane, 2012). The theory is analyses performance of an organization on a broader platform; it takes in account social and environmental sustainability as a core principle to improve its economic value. In other words, it can be explained that the Triple Bottom Theory, which presents a method for determining the economic value of the organization, stresses on environmental and social gains depending on the economy. It allows evaluating economic value of the entity and its scope in an economy by measuring its financial and non-financial aspects. The accounting framework is mainly associated with the profit or loss that is measures on the basis of the bottom line of the revenues and expenses of the statements. However, with the passage of time participation and scope of the business entities have expanded with respect to the environmental and social concerns of the society that have put responsibilities on the organization to meet these standards to develop stronger long term relationship. It is one of the reasons that the environmental and social concerns have become a part of full cost accounting. The theory focuses on the commitment of the organization to Corporate Social Responsibility. Wale, Robinson & Dickson (2010) states that the Triple Bottom Line Theory demands company’s responsibility lies with stakeholder rather than shareholders (Wale, et al., 2010). It emphasizes that the business entities should be inclined towards stakeholder interest rather a maximizing shareholder profits. The theory is adopted by the growing for-profit, non-profit and governmental sectors to improve their performance by incorporating the elements in its sustainability framework. Bowdin, Allen & O’Toole (2012) highlights the significance of Triple Bottom Theory as it captures the essence of sustainability by measuring impact of an organization activities on the world, shareholder values, social, human and environmental capital (Bowdin, et al., 2012).’ The theory is adopted in order to assess the event with a broader perspective that would allow evaluating the performance in terms of monetary concerns, as well as sustainability. It can allow determining monetary returns as well as nonfinancial returns that improve sustainability of the event. However, there is a certain limitation to the theory that makes it difficult to measure sustainability and performance of intangible sectors and non-profit organization. In addition, the theory lacks unified measurement unit to identify financial and non-financial aspects of the event. For instance, the profit is measured in monetary terms but measuring environmental and social in terms of unit or finding a similar measurement is one of the major challenges. Moreover, identifying the People or Stakeholders is one of the major concerns that have to be determined in a different dimension. In different societies, it becomes difficult to define what is right and what is wrong. Despite, the different measurement units Triple Bottom Line allow evaluating the performance as well as sustainability measures of the even taking into account its long-term perspectives and evaluating its future consequences of decisions. ISO-20121 The event management is one of the prior concerns that have to be addressed adequately in order to ensure its long-term sustainability. The ISO 20121 is an international standard for sustainable event management that aims to improve the performance of the event management cycle established by International Organization for Standardization. It provides standards and guidance for the event management organization to regulation and controls its social, economic and environmental impacts. It mainly focuses on the different resources that the organization can make use of to make the event sustainable. In other words, it enhances event sustainability management system that allows the organization to lower its environmental and community impacts and develop a stronger relationship with stakeholders. The ISO 20121 is applicable to the members of the event industry ranging from supply chain, event managers, caters and logistic suppliers. The reason that ISO 20121 is adopted is because it provides well-defined framework and standards to determine management system approached to ensure sustainability in its event. It provides a platform for the researcher to identify the negative and positive social, economic and environmental impacts of the event (Werhane, 2012). In addition, it provides detailed information about the planning and processes that can be implied to an event to promote healthy life style. Moreover, the standards defined in the framework identify the practical guidance of the communication, stakeholder identification, engagement, operational planning and control, supply chain management and procurement and issue evaluation (Diversity is Everybody’s Business, 2014). The standards provided in the ISO 20121 provide understanding and benchmarking criteria of the different type’s events. It provides identification of its stakeholder of different sizes and types of events. The entire framework does the ISO 20121 is composed on the basic four steps that are, Plan, Do, Check and Adjust. The international organization for standardization is an authorized organizational standard that are accepted by the different countries across the globe and representation of various standards. Hence, the application of the standards is of great significant to any of the events, as most of the standards are application worldwide. In addition, it allows determining cost effectiveness of the policies of the event that has been adopted to reduce the environmental and societal impacts and improve its performance and profitability. Moreover, the ISO 20121 would allow determining effectiveness of the event policies allows understanding effective allocation of the resources of the local communities (Bowdin, et al., 2012). In addition, it provides broader dimension to evaluate the effectiveness of the policies with a flexible approach to understanding the different types of events and different stakeholders of the event. The use of the ISO 20121 can be justified on the basis of past researches that have been conducted by the different researcher. Wale, Robinson & Dickson (2010) in their study makes use of ISO 20121 standards to critically analyse the effectiveness of the different mega events (Wale, et al., 2010). Analysis The section of the report provides critical analysis of the sustainability policy of World Cup FIFA on the basis of the theoretical framework provided. The section illustrates and critically analyses sustainability policies adopted by FIFA for the World Cup 2010. The researcher will imply the concepts of Triple Bottom Line Theory and ISO 20121 to evaluate the effectiveness of the sustainability policies (Bowdin, et al., 2012). Analysing the vision and mission of the FIFA’s sustainability policy (2010), it can be noted that the main objective of the event revolves around effective organization and implementation of the sustainability. The mission of the FIFA states that he World Cup FIFA is an organization in a sustainable manner to reduce negative and increase the positive impact of the event on the society and the environment’. The Triple Bottom Line Theory highlights that the business entities should focus to improve their performance not merely in terms of economic value but also with respect to environmental and societal values in order to ensure its long-term commitment and sustainable development. It stresses that the organization should not be concerned for its economic return and should engage to maximize shareholders, but it should be more focused to maximize its output with respect to its stakeholder. According to the vision of FIFA World Cup ‘organizers and stakeholder have to take concentrate steps to make the event more sustainable’ reflects that the event management of the FIFA takes in account responsibility of economic and social aspect of the society. The LOC and FIFA are committed to improving its position by implying five principles, accountability, ethics, transparency, respect for stakeholders’ interest and respect for the rule of law. Hence, it can be determined from the principles of the FIFA and LOC that the World Cup event addresses societal concerns in an effective manner but the performance of FIFA has not been adequately addresses. The waste management at the FIFA have been a controversial issue, as the waste was not being effectively management. The organizers of the events are dedicated to taking responsibilities to reduce the societal and environmental impact and reduce the repetition of the negative effects of the event. However, the initiatives taken would only mitigate the impact and would not contribute in the reduction or betterment for the environment. It can be noted that the FIFA World Cup event are organized in accordance to ethical conducts that meet societal demands. In terms of the disclosure, LOC and FIFA lack of transparency about the decisions and activities that are taken in account to reduce the impact on the society and the environment are evident. The installation of the energy plant in the stadium in Cape Town remains to be controversial issue, as the heaters at the stadium have adversely impacted the environment. It can be noted that the FIFA world cup was initially developed in accordance to the environment and promote sustainability concerns. The support of the social development programs, such as HOPE and other youth empowering organizations is evident in the event. It portrayed that the affiliation of the event would overcome the poverty and provides equal opportunities for the individuals for the necessities of life. However, the donation was mainly done internationally; no significant contribution for the host country was made. In addition, the standards of ISO 20121 are evident in the caste and staging of the event. The ISO 20121 guideline highlights that the events, which are organized, should meet environmental issues. Global warming is one of the major environmental concerns that have to be adequately addressed in staging of the event. It is evident from the event that the organizers have made use of solar panels but the use of heaters, lightening of the stage was excessive. Though it significantly reduce the cost, as well as provided a dimension for the event to remain energy efficient but at the same time the use of excessive lightening, waste and buses contributed in the emission of CO2 that would result in global warming. Moreover, it can be noted that the waste, water, energy, transportation, procurement and climatic change issues have also been considered. It can be noted that the FIFA world Cup (2010) has been staged in accordance to global ISO 20121 standards that highlights that the environmental impacts are the major concerns that has to be address in order to develop stronger and sustainable relation with the society (Bowdin, et al., 2012). It can be attained through promoting environmental protection, offsetting carbon emission, logistics, transportation, waste, water, sustainable consumption and energy (conscious consumption, efficiency and renewable energy) (Wale, et al., 2010). In FIFA World Cup (2010) the organizer make use of mitigation project by Danish UEMP that remarked as one of the energy efficient Green Point and Pilippi stadium that has reduced the street lights, the set up of solar water heaters in darling and hydro turbine Green Point Park can be noted as one of the efforts of the world cup 2010 to overcome environmental impacts on the organization. The use of energy efficient projects allowed reduction in the energy as well as contributed in the reduction of CO2 emission. However, it did not contribute in the reduction of the environmental negative impact but the installation of this project mitigated the possible negative environmental outcomes of the event. In addition, the vehicles used for the transportation of the audience and people of FIFA were done using Eco-friendly technology and drivers. In addition, there were more than 20 eco taxi trained driver that gained their training from the Eco-driving campaign. Moreover, the event sponsored environmental education programs that allowed promoting environmental education among the individuals. The ISO 20121 standards and Triple Bottom Theory state that it is essential for the events to promote sustainable education programs in the long run to develop stronger relationship with its stakeholders. From the information provided it can be determined that FIFA World Cup has made adequate efforts to address society and environmental concerns. According to the sustainability policy provided in the website of the FIFA it can be noted that the event has been organized considering social and environmental concerns (Trevino & Nelson, 2010). However, there are certain societal concerns that still remain to be incorporated to improve its sustainability in the long run (Diversity is Everybody’s Business, 2014). Recommendation and Conclusion The inclusion of sustainability is one of the fundamental aspects to develop long-term image and value of the event. Thus, the organizations operating in the event industry should develop long-life sustainability policies (Freeman, 2010). Despite the fact, World Cup FIFA has ensured effective sustainability concerns in its operation but still there are several ways that the organization can improve its sustainability operation strategies (Molamohamadi & Ismail, 2013). FIFA can develop stronger relation with its supply chain management member and effective communication for spreading awareness and considerable importance for sustainability agendas of the environmental concerns. The quality of the product and services that is offered by the suppliers and vendors should be done carefully implying supplier selection process and criteria. It is the selection of the eco-friendly products and sharing information about environmental concerns. Besides the fact, the World Cup FIFA is engaged in sustainable programs for saving energy and energy wastage. It can further imply the use of T5 bulbs in its stores extensively. Moreover, the organization can also make use of bio-energy as a source of energy. It will allow the company to reduce the costs and preserve the environment (Peng, 2009). FIFA and LOC should concentrate on the inclusion of more CSR activities in its operations such as, Human resource management, supply chain, etc. It will not only provide company with the higher standards of sustainability but also improve its performance and cost reduction. FIFA should increase the number of suppliers in its supply chain management that are constantly involved in the improvement of the sustainability. It can allow the organization to create a greater value and impact in the event industry (Silver, et al., 1998). The standards of the selection and criteria of supply chain should not be static. The company should keep on changing the standard keeping in the views environmental changes prevailing in the global society. FIFA and LOC should come up with greater innovative ideas in order to response environmental and social challenges faced by the society. Hence, the company should not just concentrate on global issues but specifically regional issues. It can allow the organization to develop stronger relation with its customers as well as maintain its competitive edge in the industry. Sustainability in supply chain management and sustainable policies of FIFA should be improved constantly and continuously analysing the trends prevailing in the industry take the leadership and sustain its competitive edge in the industry. Promotion of transparency is one of the effective ways to overcome the issues, increase the partnership with its suppliers and vendors, inclusion of appropriate technology and innovative ideas can overall improve organization sustainability (Zhu, et al., 2008).   List of References Bowdin, G. et al., 2012. Event Management. London: Routledge. Chandra, H. et al., 2013. Supply Chain Management with Cost Containment and Financial sustainability in a tertiary care hospital. JHHSA, pp. 3-21. 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