The Rugby World Cup and Sustainability. Can the Two Go Hand in Hand?

With the World Cup of rugby only a few months away I have asked myself this question, can the RWC and the notion of sustainability go hand in hand? In a way i am very unsure but the Auckland Council seems to think so and they are the ones that are involved in the organisation process.

According to the Auckland Plus website the Auckland Council is committed to:

"reducing and minimising, where practicable, the environmental impacts associated with staging the Rugby World Cup 2011 events and activities in the Auckland region. It is also committed to delivering resilient long-term environmental benefits as a legacy to the Auckland region and its people. A key element of this is the adoption of sustainable management practices, including sustainable procurement".

They aim to achieve this through:

• making contactors and suppliers demonstrate their commitment and alignment to key environmental sustainability objectives in their day-to-day business operation and their delivery of goods and services to the RWC 2011.
• a sustainability toolkit

The sustainability toolkit can be found by clicking here

Essentially this toolkit will help to identify potential suppliers of goods and/or services, organisations tendering for work and those carrying out the assessment of submissions. It also provides an important opportunity to promote, facilitate and support the adoption of sustainable business practices through the tendering process, as a key legacy of the RWC 2011.

With this in mind i do think that the notion of sustainability and the RWC can go hand in hand. However, time will tell the true story and we will have to wait and see whether this is eventually true