Governance Pillar

Transparency and accountability

Objective: Maintain an effective sustainability management system for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ in line with the requirements of ISO 20121.

The transparency and accountability material topic aligns with the following UN SDGs:

Context

The organisation of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ was an extremely complex operation, involving close collaboration between multiple bodies for successful delivery. Effective and transparent governance and management practices were critical for ensuring the accountability of key stakeholders for actions and decisions taken and for maximising the sustainability of the tournament.

A sustainability management system (SMS) provides a framework for the establishment and achievement of sustainability objectives, while ensuring integrity, stakeholder inclusiveness and continuous improvement is maintained throughout the process. The event industry is the first sector to have its own international SMS standard – ISO 20121 (Event sustainability management systems). The standard sets out all the elements that an event organiser must have in place to maximise the sustainability of an event.

The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 LLC (Q22) - a joint venture between FIFA and the Host Country focused on delivering tournament operations - committed to implementing the ISO 20121 standard for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ and achieved certification in June 2022. The FIFA World Cup 2022™ Sustainability Policy and Sustainability Strategy  form the basis of the ISO 20121 SMS; other elements include effective governance structures, an action plan, continuous stakeholder engagement and performance tracking and reporting.

Initiatives

The transparency and accountability objective was addressed through the following initiatives:

Updating the sustainability strategy

Periodically reviewing and updating the sustainability strategy to reflect evolving best practices and technologies in sustainable event management, and responding to changes in the internal and external context and associated risks and opportunities.

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Sustainability plans, policies and processes

Developing an action plan to deliver on our sustainability strategy, including responsibilities, key performance indicators and targets for each initiative.

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Stakeholder engagement and communication

Periodically and meaningfully engaging with national and international stakeholders, including representatives of those most affected to discuss progress in the implementation of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ Sustainability Strategy and Policy.

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Sustainability performance monitoring

Monitoring and evaluating both the conformance to sustainability management plans, procedures and processes and the ISO 20121 standard. This includes identifying and correcting non-conformities.

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Sustainability reporting & knowledge transfer

Reporting progress achieved against the sustainability strategy, including publication of a post tournament sustainability report in alignment with the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards and following guidance from the UNGP Reporting Framework.

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Sustainability governance

Establishing clear roles, responsibilities and governance structures for sustainability, including at board level and for the Sustainability Steering Group, and ensuring that these are well-documented, implemented and reviewed.

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Sustainability behaviour change

Expanding B4D’s policy experiments using insights from behavioural economics and psychology to gently ‘nudge’ FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ stakeholders towards more sustainable choices.

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