Le Point: Rugby World Cup 2023 and the environment?

Le Point: Rugby World Cup 2023 and the environment?

With 6 months to go to the opening match between France and New Zealand, what's the latest on the environmental measures put in place by the organizers?

A competition with a "positive impact". This is France 2023's stated ambition to make the Rugby World Cup a responsible sporting event. One of the CSR (corporate social responsibility) objectives is to reduce the impact on the environment and make sport more eco-friendly, two terms that seem less and less opposed.

In recent years, sport has become "a tool for accelerating the environmental transition of our society", according to WWF France. In 2017, the NGO helped the French Ministry of Sport to create a charter of 15 eco-responsible commitments, to which France 2023 is a signatory.

As Carina Orru, CSR Director for France 2023, explains: "Working groups are being set up and we're holding discussions with local authorities and stadiums. A biflux system will be installed, one for plastic, cardboard, etc., and a second for other waste. The sorting instructions will be the same everywhere, with appropriate signage and garbage cans, from where the public arrives to the stadiums".

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