City of Seattle OnePlanet

City of Seattle

Case Study

Overview

Name: City of Seattle / FIFA

The City of Seattle will be one of the host cities for the World Cup 2026 in the United States of America, Canada and Mexico. FIFA, the World Cup organiser, has a set of sustainability standards that it requires all its venues and host cities to meet. Having engaged with FIFA prior to Qatar 2022, OnePlanet was commissioned by the Chief Legacy Officer of Seattle FIFA World Cup to work with City of Seattle to support them in developing their response to the FIFA sustainability requirements.

More info: Seattle World Cup page

Challenges

FIFAs sustainability requirements are necessarily broad as they address not just the matches themselves but the full impact of the World Cup event on the host city. Therefore, the response needs to bring together the activity of all the relevant organisations; public, private and not for profit. Additionally, delivery will require close collaboration between these organisations. Specific challenges faced included:

Ensuring that all venues, not just the stadium, aligned with the sustainability plan

Plan needs to address a broad range of issues at a city level including; building emissions and certification, transport, procurement (including food), reporting and waste management.

Many venues had no experience of this level of reporting or accountability and /or do not report to the frameworks required by FIFA.

Accurate evidencing of the plans and performance required central management.

OnePlanet Solution

OnePlanet used an Ecosystem account to address this challenge. The Ecosystem Plan included both the FIFA requirements as well as the key goals of the Seattle response, drawn from their existing key goals and objectives. OnePlanet created a set of Lenses for frameworks (Energy Star, Green Sports Alliance, Sustainable Sports Index and LEED) required to be used for reporting, several of which were already being used by large stakeholders, such as The Lumin Field Stadium.

This was then used to create a connected Plan for each key stakeholder including the City of Seattle organising committee plan and Lumen Field Stadium.

A Plan template was created for each type of venue; hotel, training facility, VIP/food venue and public service such as the transport authority. These templates needed to be streamlined and easy to use and so included just the FIFA goals and potential actions to address these relevant to them. Venues reviewed the relevance of these templates and OnePlanet adjusted according to feedback. The templates ensured that the venues could easily create a plan and that there would be centralised reporting.

The next steps identified included incorporating the cultural strategy to engage the local community, and to build the legacy plan. Unfortunately, staff turnover prevented this stage of delivery.

We want OnePlanet to be a key part of our legacy for the city

Lisa Chin, Chief Legacy Officer, Seattle Football World Cup 2026

Benefits and Return on Investment

Using OnePlanet ensured that the City of Seattle was able to successfully create an integrated response to FIFA’s requirements,

The Lenses for reporting save time for each organisation involved.

OnePlanet enables knowledge sharing, reporting and collaboration – meeting FIFAs specific requirements.