Environmental Sustainability in the Sport Sector. A Perspective on Sport Organisations and Sport Events

This doctoral dissertation focuses on the complex relation between sport and environmental sustainability. The sport sector depends on the environment for a large part of its activities, but at the same time, it impacts the environment by using resources, occupying in- and outdoor spaces, generating waste and emitting greenhouse gases. While this is just a sliver of what some other sectors are contributing to global climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, the devastating consequences urge every sector to act. Moreover, besides its negative impact on the environment, is the sport sector also capable of creating an important positive impact. Millions of stakeholders watch or practise sport on a daily basis. As such, the sector is capable of conveying an environmental message that is able to reach numerous people regardless of political, economic and religious differences. To distribute this message and encourage others to show pro-environmental behaviour, the sport sector has to be represented by environmentally conscious sport organisations. However, the sport sector bumps into various barriers that make it difficult to implement actions. A lack of empirical knowledge and evidence-based recommendations is one of these barriers. As such, this doctoral project aims to contribute to academic research by providing empirical knowledge on environmental sustainability in the sport sector. The main focus of the project will be on sport federations and (participatory) sport events because to date, research examining these sport settings is very rare. By doing so, it provides relevant insights that can serve as a venture point for future research, but it can also help to reduce some of the barriers that currently keep the sector from becoming more environmentally sustainable. To reach these objectives, six studies have been performed and included in this manuscript. A short summary of each research paper is presented underneath.

The first paper is a scoping review on environmental sustainability in sport organisations that adheres to the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews) quality guidelines. After a strict inclusion and exclusion process, the review includes 44 articles that were published in English peer-reviewed journals and focuses on environmental sustainability in sport organisations. The selected articles are discussed according to their descriptive characteristics and their organisation type: i.e., sport leagues and teams, academic athletic departments, sport clubs and sport federations. The review reveals underresearched areas that need further academic attention, it summarises important evidence-based knowledge and it highlights which literature sport organisations can counsel for additional in-dept insights.

For the second paper, all available website of sport federations located in Belgium were examined to assess the current behaviour of the sport federations and to determine their progress in terms of environmental sustainability. The content analysis of the websites allows to apply and further develop the environmental wave typology created by McCullough and colleagues (2016). The results show that 37 of the 141 included sport federations communicated environmental initiatives or strategical considerations on their websites. The remaining 104 federations that did not communicate about environmental sustainability were included in the newly created wave 0. These findings indicate that environmental sustainability is not yet institutionalised in the organisational behaviour of sport federations.

The third paper presents a mixed-method analysis to get a broader understanding to what extent environmental sustainability is included in the Flemish sport federation sector and to highlight opportunities to improve this state. The study uses interview data, survey data and data derived from the policy plans of sixteen Flemish federations to fulfil these goals. The findings are presented using a research framework that builds upon the work of Fifka and Jaeger (2020). The framework consists of five levels and ten steps and enables to propose several recommendations to improve the integration of environmental sustainability into the organisational structure of sport federations.

In the fourth paper, the environmental, social and economic sustainability of participatory sport events are assessed. To this end, a measurement instrument was developed based on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The instrument was empirically tested among a representative sample of 303 participatory sport event organisers located in Flanders. A confirmatory factor analysis provides evidence for the validity and reliability of the instrument. The findings reveal discrepancies between the three dimensions of sustainability, with a noticeable lower score for environmental sustainability compared to social and economic sustainability.

The fifth paper examines to what extent the participants of a Belgian running event would be willing to pay to contribute financially to the costs for improving the environmental sustainability of the event and which factors determine this choice. A total sample of 1,056 online surveys was collected and the contingent valuation method resulted in an average willingness to pay of 7.72 EUR when taking into account the number of people that indicated to be willing to pay. The study also found a significant relation between the components defining the theory of planned behaviour and the willingness to pay. The study provides academic insights that have been indicated by previous authors as currently missing and it presents event managers options to improve the sustainability of their event in a financially feasible way.

The sixth and last paper of this manuscript focuses on mega sport events. The study examines to what extent people’s perception of environmental sustainability in mega sport events influences their support to potentially host a mega event in the future. The data was collected using a survey conducted in Germany, which resulted in 917 cases that could be used for further data analysis. Multinomial logistic regressions reveal that positive and negative perceptions of the environmental sustainability of an event are important predictors of support for and opposition to hosting a mega sport event. The findings have important implications for the bidding processes of future events, because the local host community has, to a certain extent, a say in whether or not a future mega sport events will be organised. The results show that people’s perception of environmental sustainability influences this decision.

It can be stated in its entirety, that this manuscript examines sport federations and sport events and aims to provide empirical research that can assist these sport settings in becoming more environmentally sustainable. While the findings of the studies highlight several venture points for the management of sport organisations to upscale their sustainability, a big part of the challenge and the necessary commitment will have to come from the organisations themselves. The results of the studies already revealed spontaneous commitments among numerous sport organisations. However, to fully institutionalise sustainability in the sector, the currently unengaged organisations will have to be nudged and most sport organisation that took first initiatives will need extra support to evolve to a more permanent and strategic environmental commitment.