Sport Management and the Natural Environment

Theory and Practice

Jonathan M. Casper, Michael E. Pfahl, Jonathan M. Casper, Michael E. Pfahl

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781134710171
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Nachhaltigkeit im Unternehmen

With climate change and other environmental issues becoming increasingly prominent, any successful sport organization now has to incorporate environmental concerns into their business strategy, while all sport managers must understand how to implement environmental initiatives into their everyday business. Sport Management and the Natural Environment is the first book to introduce environmental theory and best practice in the context of sport management, demonstrating how sport organizations can become more effective and sustainable, and exploring the important advocacy role that sport organizations have in local and global communities. It considers the unique social, economic and political space that sport occupies in society, and examines the most important practical managerial issues related to sport and the environment, including:

• Facilities

• 
  
  

• Finance and accounting

• 
  
  

• Leadership

• 
  
  

• Marketing, communication and digital media

• 
  
  

• Operations

• 
  
  

• Stakeholder relations

• 
  
  

• Strategic planning

• 
  
  

Including contributions from leading academics and practitioners, Sport Management and the Natural Environment is the perfect foundation text for any course touching on environmental issues or social responsibility in sport, and essential reading for any sport manager looking to improve their professional practice.

1 Introduction Sport and the natural environment

Jonathan M. Casper and Michael E. Pfahl

DOI: 10.4324/9781315881836-2

Why sport and the environment?

Sport, in all its forms, creates an environmental footprint like everything else in life. Additionally, sport is also interwoven in culture and society and the sport industry can use its unique influence to provide much-needed business leadership in ecology and sustainable practices (Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) 2013). The tangible effects of sport organization environmental actions can help in supporting public health, reducing pollution, protecting habitats, saving energy and water, environmental behavior change in sport fans’ lives, and far beyond. These effects have initiated a sport environmental movement with two broad goals: to reduce the ecological footprint of sports activities and to exploit the popularity of sports to raise environmental awareness in general (Schmidt 2006).

The sport ecological footprint is resultant of sport origination functions (e.g., general operation, hosting events, and maintaining facilities) and spectator impact (attendance and viewing). For example, millions of fans attend sporting events, meaning millions of people travel to and from games, most of them in cars or by other public transport. Upon arrival numerous non-food items are purchased requiring production, packaging, transport, storage, etc. (e.g., foam fingers, hats, magazines). Fans at sport facilities produce varying levels of waste after each sporting event (e.g., paper wrappers, cups, food waste both in and outside the stadium). While fan-produced waste often gets the majority of attention, even the athletes themselves generate waste when they play. Water bottles, game notes, wrappers, etc. are produced by the athletes and add to the overall waste footprint at an event.

At the same time, sport provides a visible platform from which to speak and educate about environmental issues. Sport is a significant part of many cultures (Horne 2006), and the constant attention it receives means that it is a useful platform to address and to publicize environmental efforts in a general way (e.g., benefits of recycling) as well as specific measures (e.g., how you can recycle at our stadium). Sport fans have an affinity for sport organizations both psychologically and consumptively (e.g., their mood after a big win; their willingness to support sponsor products). Therefore, sporting organizations and events can serve as environmental platforms to not only educate fans but also to influence sustainable behaviors within their everyday lives (e.g., Seattle Mariners’ Sustainable Saturdays).

Taking environmental action through sport is a significant step towards improving the impact of sport on the environment. Although academic literature on sport and the natural environment has grown significantly over the last decade, most of the research to date regarding sport and the natural environment is published in a variety of academic journals related to the areas of tourism, recreation, and sport management (e.g., Casper et al. 2012; Elliot and Delpy Neirotti 2008; Hums et al. 1999; Inoue and Kent 2012; Jin et al. 2011; Lenskyj 1998; Pfahl 2010, 2011, 2013). The scope of environmental issues in relation to sport is like those in many other businesses and organizations (e.g., energy, water, waste, carbon/GHG, transportation, supply chain footprints (Sharma 2000; Sharma and Vrendenburg 1998; Shrivastava 1995)). Given the complexity of the issues involved, scholars have used the traditional business press to study and to theorize about strategic issues related to the environment (Esty and Winston 2006; Fineman 1997). In the business literature, the natural environment is studied based on strategic implications (Hart 1995; Hart and Milstein 2003), changes in organizational culture (Govindarajulu and Daily 2004; Harris and Crane 2002), and operational and systemic issues (Kitazawa and Sarkis 2000).

The challenge facing sport scholars and sport professionals alike is similar to that of other organizational personnel where the sheer scope, depth, and breadth of environmental issues need to be understood and addressed. To date, there has not been a comprehensive effort to tie together all the threads within the discussion of sport and the natural environment. Some studies are focused on particular aspects of this area (Inoue and Kent 2012; Jin et al. 2011; Mallen et al. 2010; Mallen and Chard 2011; Pfahl 2011; Schmidt 2006), but do not take into account the multiperspectival, holistic, and multi-functional nature of sport, the environment, organizational management, and stakeholder engagement. In sport, given the relatively new interest in the topic, little research has focused on synthesizing the broad aspects of natural environment issues in relation to organizational operations. Additionally, since most sport organizations function as service-oriented organizations, the operations and stakeholders involved can be very different than most business operations. There is a need to examine the natural environment and sport from a broad and holistic perspective. It is imperative to outline the interconnected environmental elements within sport organizations (e.g., marketing, facility management) in order to better focus strategic planning for environmental issues (e.g., goals, objectives) as well as the resulting tactics (e.g., energy audits).

Sport and the natural environment: perspectives

A myriad number of ways to address environmental issues exist and are dependent upon the situation or context at hand (e.g., energy use, water use, paper use, waste generation) and the stakeholders involved. Moving the environmental issue from only a political, social, economic, or technological one and into the realm of interconnected ands versus eithers or ors makes it a strategic one. Strategy is grounded in awareness, knowledge, behavior, cognition, and action, and each of these aspects is linked to strategic elements within an organization of any kind.

Each day, sport brings entertainment and enjoyment to millions of people around the world. The demand for sport means that it must be available for fans when they want it. In the nineteenth century and in the early part of the twentieth century, sports events were held outdoors in fields and other public spaces. As the enclosure movement took place around the world, we see purpose-built facilities for sport being built. These facilities enclosed the playing area and ushered in the start of sport as a business through ticket prices and marketing and promotional efforts. Over the course of the twentieth century, stadia and other event facilities became more than functional sites to host events. They became destinations with their own parking, restaurants, and other entertainment amenities in addition to a place where games are played and events take place (Kidd 2013; Sage 1993). The style and architectural design can become artistic expressions of a local community such as in Seattle where the CenturyLink Field includes internal and external art from local area artists (Ansell 2013; CenturyLink Field 2013). They are also used as centerpieces of urban renewal projects, although the success of the renewal and economic impact on the local community can be difficult to quantify (Chapin 2004; Coates and Humphreys 2003; Jones 2002; Maennig and du Plessis 2009). Of course, such architectural and functional dynamism to account for environmental issues also comes with an environmental cost (Dolles and Söderman 2010).

What role, then, does sport play in the context of the natural environment? More specifically, how can sport personnel understand and take action over environmental issues? A strategic, integrated lens, following events in a moment and over time, allows this question to begin to be answered. However, many of the answers are answers with a question mark, as contextual variables shift and change. A starting point for this process is a dual-perspective track that looks at structural enablers and constraints to environmental causes and solutions. One perspective is an outside-in one where the environment and related contextual elements (e.g., government laws and regulations) impact how an organization strategically plans and operates (Porter and Reinhardt 2007). A second perspective involves an inside-out view where sport organization personnel examine and understand how their efforts impact the environment (Porter and Reinhardt 2007). Most often, this takes place when environmental issues are first assessed within a sport organization and then again throughout the changed operation processes moving forward. The outside-in perspective is more difficult to address because it involves changes to environmental variables outside of the control of a sport organization. The flood of New Orleans and the surrounding communities impacted the professional sport teams and local intercollegiate programs in profound ways. However, the factors leading to the disaster, both man-made and occurring naturally, were out of the control of sport personnel. As a result, planning for the events that unfolded was nearly impossible or, at the very least, improbable.

The more common viewpoint with which to examine the impact sport has on the environment is to use the inside-out perspective (Porter and Reinhardt 2007). This view examines the substantial resources used to operate sport organizations and conduct sport events. For example, energy use, such as that to power lighting, communication equipment, and many other facets of a game experience, will continue to grow as stadia become more elaborate in their visual and entertainment content without concurrent investments in energy efficiency programs (Houghton 2007). Major League Baseball (MLB) led the major professional leagues in the United States by working to understand environmental issues related to its teams’ games and stadia operations. In 2005, MLB personnel joined with counterparts at the NRDC to develop an environmental strategy. Other leagues soon followed. In the National Hockey League (NHL), the league and team personnel developed an overall environmental strategy and local (team-oriented) and national (league-oriented) initiatives. An example of a league-oriented initiative is a program called Gallons for Goals whereby, for each goal scored in the regular season, 1,000 gallons of water is restored to a dewatered river through a partnership with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation (National Hockey League 2014). In another example, the National Basketball Association (NBA) provides information and resources for classroom use during its annual Green Week (National Basketball Association 2014). Additionally, the NBA announced its Mosaic online tool to measure the environmental impact of team operations in conjunction with the NRDC and Renewable Choice Energy. “Mosaic will allow all NBA teams and venues to track, analyze and identify cost savings opportunities within their environmental footprint” (Environmental Leader 2013: 3).

The NRDC first developed metrics such as this with MLB and, later, the NHL in an effort to assist the league and team personnel with environmental assessment of their activities for improved strategic planning and information sharing among league teams (Hershkowitz 2010). In fact, the NHL developed a comprehensive strategy with the NRDC that incorporated the Greening Advisor, which “is a web-based resource customized for each team that offers environmental guidance and strategies to promote more sustainable practices for NHL team and arena operations” (Natural Resources Defense Council 2014a: 1). Over time, this evolved to include metrics for assessment of environmental efforts, a solar panel installation guide to all NHL teams, and a strategy to redistribute unused prepared food from league games (Natural Resources Defense Council 2014a).

Sport personnel, in conjunction with corporate partners who share similar environmental missions, conducted environmentally themed events. In the NBA, for example, the league conducted a contest with Sprint (a telecommunications company) where, during the 2013 Green Week, fans who pledged to recycle their old mobile devices were entered into a draw to win a trip for two to the 2013 Finals as the grand prize (Environmental Leader 2013). The partnership also produced a buyback program where fans recycling their telephones would receive credit towards Sprint services as well as other NBA-related prizes (Environmental Leader 2013). Sprint noted that this would save more than 20 million devices from entering landfills (Envir...