Environmental sustainability in today’s sporting events

The International Floorball Federation (IFF) in cooperation with the City of Lahti organises a sustainability seminar in conjunction with the Women’s U19 World Floorball Championships 2024. Come and hear the latest on environmental sustainability in sports events. The seminar is a part of the EU-funded GAMES project which aims to increase awareness and mitigation of climate change in sport. The event is directed for sports organisations, clubs, event organisers, sponsors / companies, municipal employees

Programme:

- What can sports do for environmental sustainability? What is floorball doing today? (Tero Kalsta / IFF)

- Sustainability in host city Lahti (Elina Ojala / City of Lahti)

- Situation in Finnish Floorball (Pekka Ilmivalta / Finnish Floorball Federation)

- Sustainability and sponsorships (TBA)

- GAMES project: overview and key findings (Tiberio Daddi, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies)

- Q/A

- Post-seminar networking

The Finnish Floorball Federation offers all seminar participants the possibility to attend the opening match of the Finnish U19 national team. The match starts at 19:00 and is played in the Lahti Fair Centre.

Speaker profiles

Tero Kalsta, Sales Coordinator, International Floorball Federation

Tero is responsible for sales and marketing at the IFF which encapsulates working with existing partners as well as customer acquisition. The last four years he has also been developing the IFF sustainability programme, especially regarding environmental topics. His background is in sales and management but has also been involved in floorball for almost thirty years as club founder, player, team manager and coach. He holds an Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and is currently a part-time student for a Master’s Degree in Sports Management at the University of Applied Sciences in Jyväskylä.

Elina Ojala, Environmental Director, City of Lahti

Elina works for City of Lahti, the European Green Capital 2021. Lahti has an ambitious climate-neutrality target for year 2025, which is 10 years ahead of Finland’s national target. Elina's team is coordinating the measures to meet the climate-neutrality target and the team is also in charge of preparing and coordinating the city's environmental policy as a whole.

Elina holds a degree of Master of Science (Tech.) in Environmental Engineering and has specialized in Water Resources Management. Before joining the City of Lahti, she worked at the Finnish Ministry of agriculture and forestry, at renewable energy industry and at regional environmental administration.

Pekka Ilmivalta, Executive Director, Finnish Floorball Federation

Pekka has a versatile background in business, sports, legal issues and CSR. After several years as an attorney-at-law and 17 years in executive positions (e.g., legal, CSR, sponsorship and HR) at the Finnish national gaming company Veikkaus he has since 2020 worked as the Executive Director of the Finnish Floorball Federation. Pekka is also a CAS arbitrator and served earlier e.g., as President of ice-hockey club Pelicans Lahti and the Finnish Center for Integrity in Sports (FINCIS).

Sponsor speaker (TBA)

Tiberio Daddi, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies / GAMES project lead

Tiberio is Associate Professor in Sustainability Management at St. Anna School of Advanced Studies a public University located in Pisa – Italy. His research interests range from corporate environmental management to sustainable consumption and production, from environmental footprint, performance and LCA to circular economy. He is author of numerous scientific publications and project manager of relevant international projects funded mainly by the European Commission. He also has been involved as European projects evaluator and he is founding partner of Spin Off company of St. Anna School specialised in environmental management consultant activities. He is coordinator of the Sport Sustainability Management area in his university, and he is project manager of the international projects like Life TACKLE, ERASMUS+ GOALS, GAMES, FREE KICKS, DECK on environmental sustainability applied in different sports like biathlon, athletics, floorball, canoeing and grassroots and professional football.