A project meeting in Copenhagen reinforces the implementation of the ACCESS project and shows reassuring signs

Thanks to the hospitality and the efforts made by the Danish Football Association, the ACCESS project partners were able to meet once again in person and discuss the implementation of the project and make sure that all the expectations would be met in 8 months, when the project ends.

After five months and the last physical meeting of the project team in Dublin, it met again to discuss the progress and the implementation of the project, especially in the two fields that most activities are revolving around at this stage of the execution of the workplan.

While the four Action Plans, corresponding to the previously identified potentials and priorities of the participating sport organisations were presented exactly a year ago, during a meeting in Porto, their implementation, testing, monitoring and finetuning is now in full swing. Thanks to the cooperation with a plethora of different stakeholders – public and private, significant progress is being made in the fields of mobility, waste management, energy supply, water saving, nature conservation and more. While some pilot test are experiencing some minor challenges, most of them are on the verge of becoming the new reality and thus considerably improving the previous operations and processes with a bigger environmental impact.

When it comes to the other crucial part of the project, important for its legacy and replication, the progress made in that field is reflected in completing the mapping exercise of potential signatories of the Charter which would see nationwide replication of the ACCESS methodology among amateur and professional clubs. The Charter and the whole follow up process once signed and adhered to, is being finalised by the GAA, who is an essential partner is securing a smooth implementation of this phase, thanks to their previous experience and achievements in Ireland.

Although there are no more project meeting foreseen before the Final Conference in Brussels, the project team will hold regular online meetings to oversee the progress and eliminate any bottlenecks that might hamper the success of the project.