ESMIS: Enhance Sustainable Measures in Sports Facilities

Traditional models of sports facilities have proven to be insufficiently prepared to address sustainability challenges. On the other hand, rising energy costs and weather conditions causing increasing water scarcity further complicate the situation. Furthermore, most sports facilities in Europe were built before 1990, without considering energy efficiency criteria. For all these reasons, a transformative change towards sustainable management practices is essential.

INDESCAT, the Catalan sports cluster, who knows the fundamental role of sports facilities in the well-being and development of society, participates in the ESMIS project, which aims to transform those facilities in totally sustainable structures.

Within the framework of the project, INDESCAT is responsible for promoting and developing guidelines for the success of sustainable sports facilities, the promotion and dissemination of these facilities and the assessment of the viability of the European Network of Sustainable Sports Facilities.

INDESCAT, through the "Energy efficiency in sports facilities" working group, has already begun to define what the necessary steps should be to achieve the energy transition in the field of the sports industry. One of them is the exchange of good practices and innovative solutions with other countries. These learnings will serve as inspiration to optimize the use of energy thanks to the reduction of its consumption and costs, so that they can be applied in sports centres throughout Catalonia. On the other hand, we will work with the firm purpose of collecting and monitoring indicators that allow us to know the costs associated with the consumption of water and energy resources, as well as other evaluative parameters. The objective of this monitoring is to obtain real and verifiable data, accessible to all centres, which can be used as a reference to monitor their evolution and to compare with other sports facilities.

The ESMIS project will leverage cross-sector collaborations, knowledge sharing and policy interventions to achieve defined challenges in order to lead a paradigm shift. By disseminating critical knowledge and lessons learned, the project aims to enhance informed decision-making and the implementation of best practices across Europe, while fostering a more sustainable and resilient sports sector that aligns with economic, social and environmental.