In July 2015, FIFA and the Local Organising Committee launched their joint sustainability strategy for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. Since then, both organisations have worked intensively with experts and stakeholders on delivering on the nine key issues and objectives. The Sustainability Report provides an overview of the outcomes and of the activities implemented to achieve a more sustainable tournament and a positive legacy, covering human rights, labour rights on stadium construction sites, anti-discrimination, accessibility, tobacco-free event, waste management, climate change, and social development. The report was prepared according to the latest Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards and verified by SGS, a global leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company.

“We are convinced that the initiatives we undertook in Russia were another significant step in the right direction for our organisation and for the world of sports and will leave a positive legacy in the country. I deem them to be a remarkable success. At the same time, we are aware that organising a mega-event in a sustainable manner is a big challenge and that there are always improvements to be made.”, said Fatma Samoura, FIFA Secretary General.

“Together with Russia’s federal and regional governments, we did our utmost to ensure that the tournament delivered an outstanding sustainability performance, thus providing the perfect foundation on which to leave an unprecedented and lasting legacy for the people of Russia.”, said Alexey Sorokin, CEO of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Local Organising Committee (LOC).

“We were able to continue evolving and expanding our approach to sustainability across the social, environmental and economic spheres. We comfortably met previous benchmarks and introduced a number of improvements. But more importantly, we took great strides forward in addressing the material issues linked to accessibility, anti-discrimination, human rights and labour rights, social development, as well as climate change and compliance”, said Federico Addiechi, Head of FIFA Sustainability & Diversity.

“Some of our actions may have had a bigger impact than others, some were more visible, some had soft and others hard impacts. From my perspective, the most important legacy is the knowledge and understanding gained by the Russian people, including youth and schoolkids, of different sustainability aspects, and the practical experience acquired through their involvement in FIFA World Cup-related activities as employees, volunteers or representatives of a Host City or our supplier. I believe that this knowledge and experience will help to spread the sustainability approach in many areas and will be beneficial to my country for years to come.”, said Milana Verkhunova, Director of Sustainable Development at the Russia 2018 LOC.