Sustainability is one of the key concerns of the European Championships Munich 2022 Local Organising Committee (LOC), that’s why the LOC created the Count & Last initiative which includes 12 projects that aim to create a valuable contribution to the ecological, social and economic sustainability of Munich 2022.
The initiative started in September 2021 and every month so far has been dedicated to a specific project derived from the three main areas of sustainability.
Consequently, European Athletics has partnered with the Munich 2022 LOC to develop the 10th Count and Last project called Welcome to Munich - Let Munich 2022 blossom in natural splendour.
The project is a call for action for young people to send the LOC a video with the phrase “Welcome to Munich” in the participant’s own language, and in as many languages as possible.
For each video submitted, a flower will be planted in Munich's Olympic Park. All submitted videos will also be combined into one highlights video, which will be shown online on the European Championships Munich 2022 website and social media channels as well as at the opening ceremony on 10 August – all the athletes and other visitors who will be coming to the event from all over Europe will be welcomed – as well as during the championship period in the Olympic Park.
The intention is to plant the flowers before the end of June so that they will be in full bloom by mid-August in time for the European Championships, creating what will become known as the ‘European Flower Meadow’.
Welcome to Munich! ???? Send us a "Welcome to Munich" video in your language! For each video submitted, a flower will be planted in Munich’s Olympiapark ???? Just in time for the start of #Munich2022, a new flowerbed blossoms and in turn lays the foundation for the Champions Garden. pic.twitter.com/Cgk62hzM4i
— Munich2022 (@ECMunich2022) June 1, 2022
The welcome video will then be used on 10 August during the opening ceremony to welcome all the athletes and people coming from all over Europe.
The European Athletics Young Leaders Forum – which will for the first time also be open to participants of other sports as the European Championships Munich 2022 embraces the continental championships of no less than nine sports – is supporting the initiative by including participation in this project, with the Young Leaders sending their own videos, within their pre-Forum tasks.
The long-term aim of this particular Count & Last project is that Munich’s famous Olympic Park will still be swathed in natural splendour for years after the European Championship thanks to the assistance of the Stadtwerke München (SWM), the regional public services authority, who will take care of the European Flower Meadow aftter the European Championships which, in turn, will become a permanent haven for bees, butterflies and other fauna.