3. Green Values and Recycling

Events can be sig­nif­i­cant users of en­ergy, wa­ter and nat­u­ral re­sources, but the World Gym­naestrada has risen up to the chal­lenge to com­bat these is­sues. Our green work is guided by an Eco­com­pass en­vi­ron­men­tal man­age­ment sys­tem. So­lu­tions to in­crease ma­te­rial ef­fi­ciency and to min­i­mize waste pro­duc­tion have been sought through­out the event plan­ning and pub­lic trans­port along with walk­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties is an in­te­gral part of mov­ing around dur­ing the event. In ad­di­tion, we see the WG2015 in Hel­sinki as a great op­por­tu­nity to cause pos­i­tive en­vi­ron­men­tal im­pacts glob­ally by in­creas­ing the en­vi­ron­men­tal knowl­edge of the par­tic­i­pants, au­di­ence and vol­un­teers. If all of us be­have in an en­vi­ron­men­tally re­spon­si­ble way dur­ing the event, we can re­ally make a dif­fer­ence!

As a vol­un­teer, you have an im­por­tant role in spread­ing the green spirit by giv­ing ad­vice and show­ing a good ex­am­ple to oth­ers. All waste will be sorted ac­cord­ing to Hel­sinki city guide­lines, there­fore sort yours ac­cord­ingly, as well. There are signs with pic­tures in the bins to show what is col­lected in each bin and in the main lo­ca­tions there are waste sort­ing ad­vis­ers to help you. Also, keep­ing the ar­eas tidy is ev­ery­body´s re­spon­si­bil­ity, so if you see rub­bish on the ground, please col­lect it and re­cy­cle.

In Fin­land, tap wa­ter is of ex­cel­lent qual­ity and we ad­vise ev­ery­body to drink it in­stead of buy­ing bot­tled wa­ter. It is fresher, free and bet­ter for the en­vi­ron­ment, thus make the most of it and re-fill your bot­tle from any tap to stay hy­drated. In ad­di­tion, we pro­vide veg­e­tar­ian food op­tions, which use a lot less en­ergy, wa­ter and nat­u­ral re­sources than meat, in this way you can re­duce your eco­log­i­cal foot­print at the lunch ta­ble.

Pub­lic trans­port is an en­vi­ron­men­tally friendly way to travel longer dis­tances and an Hel­sinki re­gion travel card (HSL Travel Card) is in­cluded in your vol­un­teer pass, so use that on your way to work. Be­tween the venues, walk­ing and cy­cling are both the eas­i­est and green­est ways to move.

If we all fol­low these sim­ple ad­vice, we can have a big im­pact in mak­ing the 15th World Gym­naestrada greener, have a look at our en­vi­ron­men­tal pol­icy.