Just as in 2006, Germany can present itself and its cities to this year's women's soccer World Cup in June and July as a cosmopolitan and hospitable country. However, major sporting events have a negative impact on environment and climate. Therefore, the Deutscher Fußball Bund (DFB) has - supported by the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU), FIFA and the Öko-Institut eV – launched the Green Goal environmental program in 2011. Through activities in the fields of energy, transport, waste, water and catering, environmental impacts are largely reduced. One major concern of Green Goal is to use the public of the World Cup for the spread of environmental issues.
Communicative actions such as the Green Goal website (http://greengoal.fifa.com), a brochure with tips on environmentally friendly behavior or the dialogue with stakeholders before and during the World Cup should motivate the general public to take environmentally friendly actions.
The FIFA Women's World Cup 2011 is described as a climate-fair event: greenhouse gas emissions which can not be avoided despite the Green Goal Event will be compensated by investing in high-quality climate protection projects in emerging and developing countries.
Large amounts of climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions are caused, for example, upon arrival of teams, officials and not least the fans. In transport, therefore, the guiding principle is: environmentally friendly and efficiently mobile. The switch to environmentally friendly transport can be facilitated through measures such as combined tickets or environmentally-friendly travel information. The mobility of the FIFA World Cup organizers and teams will be environmentally friendly.
In addition to measures that are limited to the World Cup, such as waste avoidance through reusable cups or biological and regional catering, are all World Cup stadiums involved in the introduction of an environmental management system. Thus, not only the world championship is environmentally friendly, but also the regular league events. The World Cup will therefore leave green marks.
