Azores Rallye is one of the first two events of the FIA European Rally Championship, the ERC, to be accredited with two stars under the FIA Environmental Accreditation Program – the other is Rally di Roma Capitale, the Italian round of the championship.
This FIA program aims to help motorsport to measure and enhance its environmental performance through three levels of accreditation.
The level now reached, of two stars, distinguishes events that demonstrate good environmental performance and that follow internationally developed roadmaps towards environmental management.
For Rui Moniz, chairman of the Azores Rallye organizing committee, this “is a reason for great pride, which makes even more sense in a region that has in the environment one of its greatest assets, if not the greatest, and its main visit card, and it’s particularly satisfying to announce it on the World Environment Day”.
The process began in 2020, with the creation of the environmental management role in the organizational structure of the Azorean event, and has been intensified in recent months, through an exhaustive audit process carried out by the FIA.
“We assume a set of commitments, based on an environmental policy that establishes guidelines for the continuous improvement of the environmental performance, taking into account the long term. There are defined environmental goals and targets, but we appeal to all stakeholders, spectators included, to be active parties”, continues the president of Grupo Desportivo Comercial, organizer of Azores Rallye.
The club wants the event to be organized in a sustainable way, reducing its environmental impacts and increasing the ecological performance, something that it’s also intended for other events it organizes.
Something very familiar in the Azorean archipelago, the first in the world to obtain international certification as a sustainable destination by an entity accredited by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, with the Silver degree.