Understanding FIA Environmental Accreditation
Concern for humanity’s impact on the environment is one of the hottest topics of the past decade. As communities grapple with how to clean up its act, large organisations are increasingly being demanded of to demonstrate their plans for reducing their negative environmental impact. When it comes to sports, fans and stakeholders are increasingly demanding to see events delivered more sustainably.
In motorsport, the governing body Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) has mandated that all members under its remit should achieve at least One-Star FIA environmental accreditation by 2025. But what is the significance of doing so, and what role can environmental accreditations play in sport’s collective sustainability efforts?
In 2012, the FIA launched it’s environmental accreditation. This is based on environmental management best practices such as ISO 14001 but is tailored specifically to stakeholders of motorsports, assessing them based on 17 categories of environmental management.
Three levels of accreditation are available, indicating varying degrees of achievement:
One-Star accreditation - demonstrates basic environmental performance with a commitment to improve;
Two-Star accreditation - awarded where a good level of environmental performance is shown and is close to meeting internationally established roadmaps towards environmental management;
Three-Star accreditation - recognises stakeholders demonstrating best practice in environmental management and showing a commitment to seek continual improvement.
Whichever level of accreditation is achieved, regular reviews and reassessments take place to ensure progress is sustained with a continued commitment to robust environmental management systems.
In 2023, Formula 1® became the first FIA championship to have all participating teams achieve Three-Star FIA environmental accreditation, demonstrating their full commitment to being best-in-class on the path towards a sustainable future. The benefit of all stakeholders participating in the same process is that it offers a standardised view of progress based on consistent metrics. A lack of standardisation is an issue that all stakeholders with an interest in sustainability are struggling to overcome. By developing a standardised way of comparing stakeholders, motorsports could become a leading sector for the assessment of environmental performance once all stakeholders are aligned with the accreditation and any complimentary standards and certifications.
While achieving Three-Star FIA environmental accreditation should be the ambition for motorsports stakeholders, this should not be the concluding target. The accreditation provides a guideline to demonstrate environmental best practice, however this can operate as a foundation for the stakeholder to build upon and maximise its positive impact.
For example, upon receiving the Three-Star FIA environmental accreditation, Silverstone then progressed to obtaining the ISO 14001 certification for its environmental management system (EMS), demonstrating its commitment to enhancing its sustainability performance. In addition to the FIA accreditation and ISO certifications, motorsports stakeholders can look at environmental initiatives that cover natural resource use, waste management, renewable energy, and other environmentally focused elements to further develop its sustainability strategy.
Fundamentally, standardised accreditations provide a framework against which organisations can measure, monitor, and improve their performance within a credible and robust system. This allows them to understand their current performance as well as set a benchmark and identify opportunities for further improvement. The achievement of the FIA environmental accreditation should act as an important step towards a wider sustainability strategy that addresses a range of environmental criteria.
Ensuring that the operational aspects are aligned to best practice through obtaining certifications as well as the implementation of environmentally focused initiatives would give motorsports stakeholders a wholistic view of their environmental performance.
Enovation Consulting has worked with a number of motorsports teams to help them through the FIA environmental accreditation process, including Haas F1 who we supported to achieve the Two-Star FIA accreditation in 2021 followed by the Three-Star accreditation the following year.
Our experience in the process and close work with the FIA leaves means we are well positioned to help motorsport stakeholders in their accreditation journey.