MADRID, Jan. 21 (SportsFinding) –
The General Director of La Vuelta, Javier Guillén, stressed that sustainability in major events “is not fashion” and “has come to stay” in the presentation of the IX Master in Sports Law and Management organized by ISDE, Students and Grant Thornton, which will begin on February 4.
“Sustainability is not a fad, it is something that has come to stay and, in large events, it has to be a necessity,” he said at the round table 'Impact of sustainability in sport' that served to present the Master in Law and Sports Management at the Grant Thornton headquarters in Madrid.
Two-time Olympic sailing champion Theresa Zabell, president of the Ecomar Foundation, participated in it; Javier Guillén himself; the Director of Marketing of Ecovidrio, José Luis Magro, and the Director of brand, sponsorship and media of Telefónica, Rafael Fernández de Alarcón.
Large cycling races such as La Vuelta run through protected areas, so organizers must be “responsible” and take measures, according to Javier Guillén, to reduce and compensate for polluting emissions, in case of the use of bicycles' drums that are biodegradable .
Meanwhile, Zabell talked about the work of the Ecomar Foundation, which has been collecting waste for 20 years – in 2019, 10,600 kilos – and that has ambassadors such as Olympic medalists and world champions Saúl Craviotto, Gisela Pulido, Marina Alabau and Ona Carbonell . “It is a way to return to the sea what he gave me, when I retired from the practice of sailing,” he said.
José Luis Magro explained the work that Ecovidrio does, which collected 840,361 tons of glass containers in 2018, for 15 years to “raise awareness” of the entire society in the recycling chain and try to make all the glass containers used recycle In that sense, Magro stressed that the fact that a cyclist from La Vuelta recycles the bottle of champagne with which he celebrates a stage win “gives more visibility than conventional advertising.”
Rafael Fernández de Alarcón argued that Telefónica's mission, which in 2019 added 1,000 million with the launch of the first 'green bonus', is to make the world a “more human space connecting people”, and underlined the commitment to reduce the footprint ecological, since data transmission and internet “also pollute”. “We are abusing a world that seemed infinite to us and that is not: it is the data,” he said.