Quick Look: Our Initiatives for Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics
- CRT-Japan and Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) proposed a draft Sustainable Sourcing Code and recommendations on the High Level Sustainability plan for TOCOG. Further information is here.
- CRT-Japan produced a draft “Food Vision” for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics (Japanese only), on the basis of a series of workshops that brought together companies, NGOs and other stakeholders.
- Here is our initiatives for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
A key to the success of Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics
Many people look forward to seeing a successful Tokyo 2020 Games. It is likely that the success of the 2020 Games is one of the biggest shared goals in Japanese society today.
However, we need to question the meaning of ‘success’ before starting our journey forward. It should not the same as that in 1964, when Tokyo last hosted the Olympic Games. At that time, “success” meant infrastructure improvement and economic development. It also meant successfully launching the Games without causing any disruptions or emergencies.
Though the Games brought huge economic opportunities and accelerated economic development, the event also left a negative legacy involving such issues as environmental pollution and regional disparities between Tokyo and other cities. “Success” of the Tokyo 2020 Games should mean something different. We should learn from the past. So, what will “success” mean for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games? The key word will be sustainability.
People around the world will expect Tokyo to host the Games with economic, environmental and social sustainability considerations, bringing a positive legacy to the society at large. This would include ensuring decent labour standards for rural and migrant workers, who engage in venue construction. This would also involve preventing allegations of child labour usage in the supply chain of suppliers/licensees/sponsors, as well as raising awareness on sustainability for the general public including audiences and volunteers at venues.
The key to launching a sustainable Olympics Games in 2020 and to making it a positive legacy for both current and future generations is for Tokyo to leverage their positive impacts to the utmost extent. For this end, it will firstly need to assess the impacts of the Games in Japan and Asia from a sustainability perspective. Then, based on this impact assessment, plans for preventing and mitigating potentially negative impacts should be created and implemented.
As has recently been observed in Sochi, an attention-grabbing event can be the best stage for many advocates to deliver their advocacies. The success of the 2020 Olympics Games will depend on how Tokyo responds to the world’s expectations.
Big Opportunities for Companies
For Tokyo 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics Games, where “sustainability” will be the keyword for its success, collaboration between the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020) and companies will be absolutely essential. Although it will be TOCOG that is responsible for embodying sustainability within all of their activities, from bidding, designing and tendering, venue construction, infrastructure development to procurement and sourcing, it will be companies that will play a key part in terms of its realization.
For businesses, this could be a great opportunity to demonstrate leadership in sustainability to the world. Moreover, the Games can be a chance to create cross-functional collaboration inspiring people from different departments, such as procurement, public policy, marketing, business development and risk management. In addition, it can also be a good opportunity to re-think sustainability initiatives from a global perspective.
To take full advantage of the opportunity, the following approach will be needed: Firstly, a company needs to assess existing sustainability initiatives and to examine whether there is a gap compared to global standards. Secondly, in order to assess how their business would be affected by the event, it is needed to identify stakeholders’ interests in Tokyo 2020 Games, and how these stakeholders will use their power to achieve their goals. Thirdly, communication of their activities to the world is also needed in order to ensure transparency and accountability.
Our initiatives for the Tokyo 2020 Games
Sustainable event management will be a key theme at the Tokyo 2020 Games. Ahead of the final selection of 2020 summer Olympics games host city, Caux Round Table Japan held a series of seminars focusing on what companies should do to prepare for one of the world’s largest sports events. Since the official announcement in September 2013, we have been continuously working to hold seminars in the area of sustainable event management systems and supply chain sustainability referring to ISO20121, and sustainability reporting referring to GRI Event Organizers Sector Supplement, and to develop a proposal for a sustainable sourcing code.
Contact Us
For more information on Our Initiatives for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, please contact info@crt-japan.jp