Sports Certification: Why Officially Recognising the Social Value of Solidarity Sport Matters

Colleghi che fanno attività fisica insieme, simbolo dello sport solidale promosso in azienda

General 22 Aug 2026

In short

Short answer: Strongers Social Club and Campus Salute APS have launched an institutional process to obtain an official certification dedicated to companies that adopt policies supporting their employees' participation in sport.

Key points:

The initiative was declared active on 8 February 2025 by President Valerio Nicolai.
The key partner is Campus Salute APS, which since 2021 holds consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
Campus Salute APS is already active in public health promotion, as demonstrated by the Villaggio della Salute in Piazza del Popolo (Rome, November 2024).
The certification aims to transform the promotion of sport in the workplace from a spontaneous good practice into a structured and recognisable policy.
For Strongers, the initiative fits within the mission of using sport as a lever for prevention and the funding of cancer research.

Why it matters: Giving formal recognition to companies that champion sport means expanding the solidarity sport ecosystem, reaching more people and building measurable social impact — in line with the founding values of Strongers.

What if companies were rewarded for doing sport?

Imagine a world in which a company that encourages its employees to run, swim or cycle receives formal recognition — exactly as happens with environmental sustainability or gender equality. This is not science fiction: it is the concrete goal of the Sports Certification, an institutional initiative that Strongers Social Club has launched together with Campus Salute APS.

What the Sports Certification involves

The idea is simple in its ambition: to create an official recognition tool for companies that adopt policies supporting their employees' participation in sport. Not a superficial badge, but a certification that gives real weight to concrete organisational choices — from agreements with gyms to the formation of company sports teams, through to flexible working hours that genuinely allow employees to train.

The process was declared active in the speech of 8 February 2025 by the President of Strongers, Valerio Nicolai, and sees Campus Salute APS as a key partner — an Italian social promotion association that since 2021 holds consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). This is not a coincidental choice: bringing a proposal of this kind into a context with UN credentials means building it with the institutional solidity it deserves.

Why this certification matters — including for cancer research

For Strongers, sport is never just physical movement: it is the engine that generates resources for cancer research and, at the same time, a tool for prevention. A certification that incentivises companies to promote sport among their workers acts on both fronts:

More active people means a population that is on average healthier and potentially more aware of their own wellbeing.
More companies involved means a broader ecosystem around the values of solidarity sport that Strongers promotes every day.
Formal recognition transforms goodwill into structured, replicable and measurable policy.

In this sense, the Sports Certification is consistent with the vision of Strongers: using sport as a lever to build real, lasting social impact — not a one-off.

The role of Campus Salute APS

The partnership with Campus Salute APS is not a minor detail. The association — already a key player at events such as the Villaggio della Salute in Piazza del Popolo in Rome (November 2024) — brings to the institutional table consolidated expertise in prevention and public health promotion. Its ECOSOC status confers international credibility that strengthens the weight of the proposal.

Together, Strongers and Campus Salute APS are building something that could change the way Italian companies look at sport: not as a secondary perk, but as a recognised strategic choice.

A journey still taking shape — and all the more reason to follow it

We are at an early stage. The definitive institutional partners — which may include sports bodies, ministries or certification organisations — are still being identified. But this is precisely the right moment to talk about it: great initiatives are built on consensus, and consensus is built by bringing more and more voices to the table.

Strongers believes that officially recognising the value of sport in the workplace is a necessary step — for companies, for workers and, ultimately, for all of us. Because a more widespread sporting culture also means better-funded cancer research, more widespread prevention and a stronger community.

Follow updates on strongers.org to find out how this journey evolves and how you can contribute.