3rd EFCS Health Conference

 

Forum – European Conference
“Sport, health and environment in companies”

 

Organized by the EFCS in collaboration with the French Federation for Company Sport
(FFSE), the European Conference, held at the French National Olympic Committee (CNOSF)
and preceded by the National Forum of the FFSE, evoked all the aspects of Company Sport
in the field of sustainable health development - two fascinating days.
In his conclusions, Denis Masseglia, the new president of the CNOSF, stressed:
"Sport and health will be one of the most important challenges our team and the French
sport in general are faced with".

 

The first day of the Conference, CNOSF General Secretary Jean-Pierre Mougin, emphasized:
the asset of sport activity within the company is to fight stress and absenteeism and to
facilitate the social cohesion".
These comments of both CNOSF leaders were very appreciated by the participants at the European Conference and at the French National Forum because of their complementarity.

These two days were very complete and dynamic through quality interventions but also
through numerous questions from a public where we noticed the presence, among others,
of leaders of EFCS national federations of course, but also of sports medicine physicians
and company representatives.

 

After the welcoming speeches by EFCS president Didier Besseyre and Alain Calmat,
chairman of the medical committee of CNOSF, the first contributions came from members
of the FFSE medical committee.
In his speech on "sport for health, health for sport", chairman James Noël developed the
main trunk of sports practice in companies, in particular its benefactions and the individual
and collective effects" on the improvement of the relations on the workfloor" while giving
very concrete advices so that this activity takes place in the best conditions according to
the age, the physical condition and the level of each.

Then, his colleague of the Federal Committee, Doctor Isabelle Pivert, presented a richly
illustrated and anecdote filled speech in which she underlined among others the
importance of a healthy lifestyle (dietetics, sleep, knowledge of the body) for "beneficial
effects of sport practice on the various parameters of health".

Sport sociologist Julien Pierre proposed on the basis of inquiries and of meetings with
companies a reflection on the theme "Do you feel the effects of the sport on your health?" developed among others, the positive aspects on the absenteeism percentage and the
social link within the company of an individual or collective physical activity.

During the last contribution of Thursday morning, Marc-Henri Bernard', former Pepsico
France Human Resources Manager (2003-2010) evoked the concrete initiatives taken in
his company where the sports practice was developed and used to improve the working environment and the productivity.

 

The environmental dimension


The second part of the National Forum focused on "sustainable development" included in
the naming of the event "Sport, Health and Environment in Company".

The environmental aspect, already widely applied in the Scandinavian countries, was
introduced by Jorma Savola (Finland), chairman of EFCS Health Management.
He evoked the concrete awareness rising and behavioural activities, organized within a
lot of Finnish and Danish companies. For example by facilitating movements on foot or by
bike or through the "step competition" which allows each participant to measure its daily
number of steps helped by a step counter: a very good concept for physical activity but
also for the team spirit within the framework of a healthy lifestyle at the workplace.

The next contributor, Haidy Aron, presented a very elaborated "environmental package"
allowing to implement within the company an environment-friendly, beneficial practice for all.

 

Nathalie Durand's presentation (she is a consultant in sustainable development) on the
theme "Company sport, an investment in the healthy living of companies " highlighted in particular the interest for all the actors (participants, spectators, organizers) to propose
events based on a strong environmental concept.

An approach relieved by Julie Tinetti (project manager to the French Association of
Normalization, AFNOR). She presented the ISO normalization procedure of sustainable development events for the organization.

 

All these contributions emphasized the importance and the opportunity to follow in the
footsteps of the Scandinavian countries to elaborate and set up in the coming years in
the other European countries the projects for which public and private financing exists.

“There is a collective awareness. The mentalities and the behaviours evolve, it’s time to concretize an ecological approach of the sports practice within companies around the
concept. “Sport + Health + Environment = winning equation of the lifestyle” was the
unanimous final message of all contributors and participants.

 

Information from the conference

 

1. The program - CLICK here.

 

2. Contributors - CLICK here.

 

3. PowerPoint Presentations - CLICK on the picture:  

   

Contributor
Haidy Aron

Contributor
Julie Tinetti

Contributor
Nathalie Durand

Contributor
Jorma Savola