Tokyo Olympics 'lagging behind' sustainability standards: WWF
January 21,2020The 2020 Tokyo Olympics is falling "far below the global best practice"
in sustainability, despite organisers placing it among the top
priorities of the event, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has said.
Organisers
in January 2016 established a code for procuring resources and
services, however, the WWF believes that Tokyo 2020 is "lagging far
behind" its goal of the next Olympics being at the "forefront in the
field of sustainability," according to the environmental organization in
a letter sent to the International Olympic Committee and published
Monday, reports Efe news.
"The committee working on the sourcing
protocols for commodities like timber, fishery products, paper and palm
oil has finalized standards that are far below the global best practice
and inappropriate for a global event such as the Olympics," said
WWF-Japan Chief Executive Officer Ron Tsutsui in the letter.
The
organising committee "produced protocols that fell far below globally
accepted sustainability standards" and showed "little regard for the
expert advice they sought from the Working Group they set up to assist
in developing world class protocols," he added, describing it as "deeply
concerning".
"As an active member of the Working Group and as an
environmental organization committed to protecting our natural world,
we felt we had no choice but to write to the International Olympic
Committee (IOC) to raise our serious concerns," said Tsutsui.
Among
the specific requests made by WWF to the IOC are to disclose the origin
of all the raw materials procured for the Games, as well as to conduct
an external review on sourcing codes and its performance in sustainable
sourcing.
The NGO said that high profile events like the Olympic
Games "have the opportunity, and duty, to lead and be truly sustainable"
when it comes to using and consuming natural resources in a sustainable
way, as well as to "leave a legacy for Japanese society to transform to
be more sustainable".
In its sustainability plan, the organizing
committee states that it will comply with all current regulations, in
addition to taking into full consideration the impact of its policies
from the point of view of climate change, the scarcity of natural
resources or loss of biodiversity, business practices and human rights.