Sustainable Educational Sports Programs

We’ve engaged with Helios Partners, an international sports marketing consultancy specializing in sponsorships and marketing for major sporting venues and events, including strategic management for bidding the Olympics and other regional, national & international sporting events.

Through this exclusive alliance, the Helios Sports Sustainability Partnership (HSSP) Program, SMC’s institutional clients can tap into the consulting resources of SMC and Helios to develop third party certified, sustainable sporting events using BS8901, an internationally recognized sustainable event management specification to guide them through the “green” event management process.

The HSSP program and its application of BS8901 provide an excellent blueprint for educational institutions seeking to ensure the athletic program’s growth and elevated reputation are keeping with the schools’ increased focus on environmental and social sustainability. It leverages environmental commitments and achievements to create incremental marketing opportunities through community partnerships, alumni relations activities, vendor relations, major tournament and game hosting, sponsorships, and applications for grants and endowments.

BS8901 is the ONLY event-based sustainability standard available. It was developed in 2007 to raise the bar for sustainable event planning practices for the 2012 London Olympics, and will continue to serve as the ideal framework for future world class sporting events. SMC is the ONLY firm in the U.S. that has established a partnership with BSI to provide its clients with sustainable sporting events consulting for BS8901.

As part of the program, Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are defined for all aspects of the institutional sporting event, and are inclusive of all stakeholders involved, (i.e. sports teams and managers, event sponsors, product and service vendors, media, students & alumni groups). This level of engagement has become the norm vs. the exception for planning national and international sporting events, including the Olympics and FIFA World Cup Soccer. Our use of an internationally recognized standard as a basis for your school’s event or program certification ensures substance, rigor, credibility and validity.

Institutional sporting event operators have a unique profit incentive to implement credible sustainable practices. Not only will the organizations reduce costs of operations, due to increase operating efficiencies, they will also gain access to additional sponsorship monies available for “green” initiatives. Many corporate sporting sponsorship budgets have been cut, affecting collegiate sporting programs; however, corporations have allocated funds for green programs and value-in-kind sponsorships which help improve and extend the sponsor’s own corporate sustainability programs.

Each event will be customized to each school’s needs based on the KPIs mutually agreed to be measurable and attainable. To ensure each project’s success, SMC will help guide each client through the process to define which KPIs are important to the client and the environment, define attainable goals, then determine the metrics and reporting processes to reach those goals.

To validate the integrity and validity of the program, BSI Group will provide certification of the event.

For more information, please email us.

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