MURCIA "JUEGA VERDE"

Sport has a sparring role as a medium to promote and encourage the environmental values and the sustainable development innate in the Olympic ideals.

Local governors, together with the managers of the Spanish Olympic Sports, have a compromise to comply and an aim to get: to improve the life of the citizens filling out the way that teaches us the sports values and sustainability.

The city of Murcia decisively bets on the projection of Sport, on bringing sports closer to all the citizens through the construction of new sports facilities, the improvement of those ones which are already built, the creation of educative sports programs and a strong bet on School Sports.

For this reason, after the approval of the agreement between the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE, in Spanish) and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP, in Spanish) in January 2007, for the integration of environmental and sustainable criteria in local sport, the city of Murcia joins the Project "Juega Verde" through an agreement of the Local Government made on October 1st 2008. The "Juega Verde" project means a bet made by the cities and the Olympic movement to improve the quality of life of the Spanish citizens applying the environmental principles of Sports in its different aspects.

The origins of the agreement mentioned are:

FIRST: THE CREATION OF THE 'AGENDA 21', THE LOCAL 'AGENDA 21' AND THE OLYMPIC 'AGENDA 21'.

In the Summit of the Earth 1992 in Rio de Janeiro the basis for the sustainable development are established: "that one which makes compatible the economic development with the respect to the environment and the social cohesion"; "that one which permits the present generations to satisfy their needs without mortgaging the possibility of the future generations of doing the same".

This Summit meant the introduction of a new way of understanding the public Management of our cities; this means a step forward from a static conception of the local government as the sum of different politics (health, education, social wellness...) towards a transversal concept, whose effects practically cover all the areas of the local management. Currently, there is no city that does not adapt its government to the Concepts of the sustainable development.

In order to put into practice these objectives of environment conservation and sustainable development, several international normative frames were articulated. Moreover a new planning for the new century, called Agenda 21 was also put into practice.

The importance of the local instances and the municipalities as the scope to act in favour of the sustainable development was strongly recognized.

They coined the motto: "Think globally and act locally"

In order to carry on this mission, they fixed a key instrument: the Local Agendas 21.

The Olympic Agenda 21, approved by the IOC in 1999 emerges as an answer to the Rio de Janeiro Summit in 1992. The IOC started an intense action line with the aim of bringing about the extension of the sustainable development values and the respect to the environment within its scope of activity. In this way, a new Commission for the Environment was created in the heart of the IOC, convened twice a year a world conference about sports and Environment, establishing strict requirements to the Candidates Cities and trying to convert the Olympic events an occasion to promote the good environmental practices.

In this context the Environment was declared the third Pillar of Olympic movement, together with Sports and Culture.

SECOND: OLYMPIC MOVEMENT AND ENVIRONMENT IN SPAIN

Following this line, in the Spanish Olympic scope, we can highlight: the creation of the Environment Commission in the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) ? organizer of the 2nd Conference ? the environmental and sustainable planning of the candidature of Madrid 2012 (now Madrid 2026) and the experiences of good environmental practices in sport events developed by several national federations.

So, in this context, several national federations signed declarations of will for working in the environmental scope beyond the sport events which gave cause to these declarations. Several national federations did so, among others the national federations of swimming, volley ball, triathlon, fencing, athletics, basket ball, cycling...

In the same way, FEMP, through its Sports Commission, organized in Zaragoza in 2006 the Sports and Environment Conference in the local scope, publishing and spreading the Good Sports Practice Manual to all the City Councils.

THIRD: SPANISH OLYMPIC COMMITTEE (COE) AND THE SPANISH FEDERATION OF MUNICIPALITIES AND PROVINCIES (FEMP)

In this context the collaboration agreement between the FEMP and the COE becomes extremely meaningful, as both entities demonstrate their will for joining efforts with a mutual compromise in favour of sports and the Environment as decisive factors of the quality of life of citizens in general and the local quality of life in particular.

They are aware of the importance of sport as a vehicle of values transmission, as it is conceived by the Olympic philosophy.

The year 2005 has been the European Year of the Education for Sports. Within the educative and civic challenges becoming more and more important in these days, we find those about Environment. Apart from the importance of the environmental education, the children's and youngsters' receptivity towards the environmental values, is more and more remarkable, becoming a favourable way for the transmission of values and education in general, beyond the strictly environmental.

Moreover, the United Nations has declared the decade 2005-2015 as the Education for the Sustainable Development Decade.

In virtue of the preceding, for the Local Entities, Sport becomes a cross vector of a high capacity for favouring good sustainable habits and for increasing the environmental sensibility and consciousness in all the social areas.

It will be important in the urban environmental strategies to foresee measures that permit becoming Sport in general a friend of the Environment and Sustainability; measures that are capable of optimizing synergies between sports and environmental promotion.

FOURTH: EASY METHODOLOGY IN TERMS OF GOOD PRACTICES

The framework agreement sees a series of clauses that declare the will of the FEMP and the COE of collaborating in the integration of the environmental and sports aspects in the local scene, contributing with a tool that facilitates this integration with the aim of contribute to the improvement of the local quality of life.

In the basis for this collaboration the synergies with other initiatives and environmental and sustainable strategies are taken into account. Among these initiatives and strategies we can find sustainable architecture and edification, water saving, energetic diversification and efficiency, renewable energies, recycling and reuse of waste products, decrease of atmosphere emissions, decrease of acoustic contamination, green spaces and biodiversity protection, and lastly, sustainable mobility promotion, specially public transport and non-mechanized mobility.

II.- THE AGREEMENT SIGNED BY THE COE, THE FEMP AND THE MURCIA CITY COUNCIL: "JUEGA VERDE" PROJECT IN MURCIA

The City of Murcia was selected in Stockholm on November 15th 1997 as the organizer of the Summer Edition of the VI Youth Olympic Games in 2001.

From that date on, the relations between the COE and the City Council of Murcia have been very close, collaborating intensively. Fruits of this relation, among other actions, emerges the will of collaborating together through the project "Juega Verde", bearing in mind the importance of the environmental policies during the last years in the municipality of Murcia.

As a consequence of all this the Murcia City Council joined the "Juega Verde" project, which was approved by the Municipal Government on October 1st 2008.

As a development of this agreement, the new projects for sports facilities are done in accordance to the Technical Building Code, approved in 2006, which considers the basic requirements according to:

• Structural Security


• Security in case of fire


• Hygiene, health and Environment.


• Noise protection.


• Energy saving (energy demand limitations, thermal facilities output, lighting energetic efficiency, minimal solar contribution for heated water and minimal photovoltaic contribution for electric energy)

Other specific measures adopted by the City Council of Murcia are:

• Placing of taps with timing devices which save water in the bathroom fittings.


• Likewise, showers and WC cisterns have water reduction devices.


• There are posters that announce the lack of water and the necessity of a responsible use of it.


• The complete emptying of public and private pools is not allowed (you can only empty them partially in order to renew the water, being able to waste a minimum of water according to the valid health rules)


• Promotion of the use of underground, recycled or stored water, in order to water the green bed in the sports facilities.

As it can be observed, the saving of water in Murcia is a very important aspect due to the lack of water suffered in this region.

• We are also applying in all our sport facilities, the selection and removal of toxic waste (plastic and metal products, obsolete electronic material, fluorescent tubes, batteries, waste oils, etc)


• We are collaborating with the Environment and Urban Quality Department of the City Council of Murcia, which advices us in the areas of energetic efficiency and renewable energy. We bear in mind, among other actions: introduction of renewable energies such as the solar or biomass for heaters and heated water.


• We are replacing the conventional energy supplies, mainly diesel, by natural gas, reducing the CO2 emissions.


• We are replacing the conventional lamps by low consumption ones (getting up to a 75% reduction)

Another important aspect of the agreement is the organization of Sports Events.

The Murcia City Council, as the organizer and collaborator in Sports events, commits to:

1. The promotion of the inclusion of environmental practices in the administrative office of the event, with measures focused on the adequate management of the waste products produced by the everyday working processes, and the use of recycled or ecologic paper in all the documents whenever it is possible.


2. To give environmental information and training to the directors and managers of the event, as well as the volunteers, with the aim of having their collaboration in the use of good environmental practices.


3. To promote a good use of the waste products of the event through the installation of recycling containers in the sport facilities, educating and giving information of their use to participants, volunteers and public.


4. To promote the use of public transport among the spectators of the event, including messages in posters and giving information directly to the volunteers of the event.


5. To avoid impacts in green or fragile areas, taking the appropriate measures for this, in order to minimize that impact as much as possible.


6. To promote the study of the implementation of solar energy devices in the sport facilities, in collaboration with the public entities linked to these areas and under the leadership of some of them.


7. To establish (according to what the Olympic Agenda 21 recommends) any example of sustainable development in the catering; in this sense, we will use "fair trade coffee" in the catering of the event.


8. To develop and communicate all these actions, in such a way that they can serve as an example and stimulus for the implementation of these actions or similar/better ones by local, regional or national clubs and sport bodies.


9. To insert the official logo of the Project in all the posters and all the competitions.

As an example, we can highlight that in 2008 we have celebrated 157 sport events in the municipality of Murcia, gradually applying these measures reflected on the "Juega Verde" project.