Blanco: “Being able to raise awareness in society about the water problem is our best medal”
MADRID, 17 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) and Acciona hope to export to sports organizations and federations the water footprint calculator that they presented this Friday at the COE headquarters in Madrid together with their ambassador, paddler Rodrigo Germade, Olympic runner-up in canoeing. in Tokyo 2020.
This was expressed in the presentation by the president of the COE, Alejandro Blanco, and Joaquín Mollinedo, general director of Institutional Relations, Communication and Brand of Acciona, exclusive partner of the Olympic organization in Efficient Water Management Models.
The water footprint calculator will allow sports organizations to understand and measure the water footprint of their activities and implement solutions to optimize water use, seeking the environmental and economic sustainability of this scarce good.
In this sense, Joaquín Mollinedo warned that the climate crisis that the Planet is going through is “fundamentally” related to water. “We perceive the carbon footprint, but when we experience a drought situation we suffer it more. Sport cannot be oblivious to this and I thank the COE for its concern to leave an environment in better conditions. It is a tool that serves as a reference to other organizations,” he said.
For his part, Acciona ambassador Rodrigo Germade said that, from sports, work must be done to transfer this type of actions to society. “The work is to bring everyone together towards a change. It is a question of a long time and not only in the issue of water,” said the Olympic runner-up in Tokyo.
The president of the COE, Alejandro Blanco, congratulated himself because what was born six months ago is today a “reality.” “This would not make sense if we did not take it to the federations. We only have to adapt what we have done to each organization and competition. I hope this is the beginning of something big that we are going to do,” he indicated.
Blanco expressed his intention to present this water footprint calculator tool at the next meeting with the Olympic and non-Olympic federations, and the great sensitivity that exists with the issue of sustainability. “Being able to raise awareness in society about the water problem is our best medal,” he said.
WHITE: “WE ARE GOING TO GO TO PARIS WITH MANY POSSIBILITIES”
Likewise, he was “very convinced” that Spanish sport will achieve a great result in Paris 2024. “I cannot remain silent. We are facing the great event and the results encourage us to be optimistic that Spanish sport will achieve many medals. We are going with many chances of winning,” he stressed.
Previously, the Director of Marketing and Sustainability of the COE, Manuel Parga, highlighted that water “is a key element” for the organization, and one of the ten lines of its sustainability strategy, recently awarded by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). .
For her part, the head of Sustainable Urban Development at Acciona, Ana Contreras, explained how the calculator works and warned that, with the growth of the world population to beyond 8 billion, water resources could be exhausted in 2050 if not measures are taken to resolve the increase in demand.
Contreras recalled that the concept of the ‘water footprint’ emerged in 2011, and captures the impact that water consumption has, directly and indirectly, on the environment. He thus explained that only 4 percent of water consumption corresponds to showering and drinking, but that the remaining 96 percent is “what cannot be seen.”
An example is the water used to cool the data centers that we accumulate or in the manufacture of clothing. “We must think more and more about the circular economy. All sports have a great impact on consumption and can contribute a lot to this reduction. It is not enough to reduce but we must move towards a regenerative model,” he invited.
UNIFORMITY, ALMOST HALF THE FOOTPRINT
In the study carried out at the COE, 23 percent of the water footprint was direct and 77 percent was indirect. Likewise, he highlighted the figure generated by the uniformity used by athletes – taking data from the last four years as a reference – which is almost half, 48 percent.
The solution would be, Contreras suggested, to reduce the number of kits and reuse them. “All sports without exception must take this calculator into account because it can position us in the market and anticipate the legislation that is going to come,” said the head of Acciona.