Sport and Environmental Sustainability

Research and Strategic Management

Greg Dingle, Cheryl Mallen, Greg Dingle, Cheryl Mallen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000072822
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Sustainability in Business
• Index: Business

Drawing on recent work in sport studies, business and management, health, science, and law, this book offers a critical examination of the latest published research on sport and environmental sustainability. It examines how strategic management, policy and education influence the relationship between sport and the natural environment, and how the transmission and advancement of knowledge via research journals can, and should, have an impact on policy and practice.

Covering sport at all levels, from professional to non-profit, and across all sectors of sport management, from marketing and events to facilities and communications, Sport and Environmental Sustainability makes a powerful argument for an awareness of, and need for, environmental sustainability in sport. Chapters outline the research and methods used, expose gaps in the literature and encourage opportunities for future inter-disciplinary research. Topics include sport and climate change, sport and safeguarding air and water quality, education for sustainability, and sport policy.

This is an invaluable resource for researchers in sport and environmental sustainability, and academics working in sport management, business, recreation and leisure studies, and sustainability programs, as well as sport policymakers and industry practitioners.

Chapter 1

Introduction to research on sport and environmental sustainability

Greg Dingle and Cheryl Mallen

Research on the topic of sport environmental sustainability (sport-ES) is an important dimension of the global sport academy. This reflects, as McCullough, Pfahl, and Nguyen (2015) have noted, a “conversation about sport and the natural environment [that] cuts to the core of sport operations and planning” (p. 1044). The aim of this text is to inspire, promote, and guide researchers, including students and faculty members, to understand the current state of the research, to complete research projects that can fill in the gaps to expand our knowledge on the topic, and to work with practitioners to move sport-ES forward.

This text provides the most comprehensive assessment of peer-reviewed research on sport-ES available. In total, 13 contributing authors revealed 229 sport-ES manuscripts published across 88 journals. Every chapter focuses on an environmental-related topic, including: the safeguarding of our air and water resources; major sport events and facilities; summer and winter sport and climate change; sport environmental policy; sport measurement tools, certification, and environmental reporting; sport environmental awareness, perceptions, behaviour, motivations, and promotions; sport partnerships, relationships, and marketing for sport-ES; and, finally, sport and environmental education.

Chapter 1 is designed to outline the parameters for the research examined for each topic discussed in the subsequent chapters. The parameters are outlined below and involve a working definition of sport and sport-ES, along with other requirements, such as language, competitive sport, years of publication, and breadth of topics and journals examined. The outline of parameters is followed by a discussion on sport’s dependence on the natural environment, sport and damage to our natural world, debates on sport-ES, and enacting sport-ES.

Parameters for the research manuscripts examined

The parameters for the selection of journal manuscripts reviewed in this text were multi-faceted and, importantly, began with meeting the requirement of being a sport, and a sport-ES, manuscript. Beginning with the concept of sport, sociologist Klaus Meier (1981) observed that sport has had a variety of definitions. These include: “all physical activities” that are “not necessary for the survival of the individual” (McIntosh, 1970); a “challenge” taken on before crowds; “any free open-air activity”; and “physical exercises”. In light of developments in recent decades, such as globalization, institutionalization, corporatization, and digital technologies (Maguire, 2000; Smith & Stewart, 2010; Thibault, 2009), definitions have at the same time become more specific, and more inclusive. For example, the electronic phenomena of fantasy sport (Billings & Ruihley, 2013) and eSports (Jenny et al., 2017) have expanded contemporary notions of sport.

For the purpose of this text, a widely accepted definition of sport is adopted which has three components: (1) competition; (2) physical activity; and (3) structures that accord with rules or laws (Guttmann, 1978, 2004; Nicholson, Kerr, & Sherwood, 2015). Given the physical dimension to sport in this definition, fantasy sport and eSports were excluded from consideration. Furthermore, non-competitive activities such as tourism and leisure were also not considered. Extreme sports (Brymer, Downey, & Gray, 2009; Brymer & Oades, 2009), though clearly physical activities, are also excluded, given the typical absence of competitive and/or rule-based structures.

The natural environment concept is also a notion without a single, universal definition. To illustrate this point, the natural environment has been referred to in non-academic literature as “nature”, “natural habitat”, or “the part of the Earth that has not been built or formed by humans” (Collin, 2011, p. 143). Alternatively, scholars such as Parkin (2000) contended that the natural environment is the “biophysical limits” of life on planet Earth consisting of soils, air, water, and ecological systems upon which the social and economic dimensions of such life depend. Consistent with these definitions, it has also been argued that humans have an inextricable relationship with the natural environment. As noted by Brymer and Oades (2009, p. 197), humans often forget that:

We are born in nature; our bodies are formed of nature; we live by the rules of nature. As individuals, we are citizens of the natural world; as societies, we are bound by the resources of our environment; as a species, our survival depends on an ecological balance with nature.

(p. 197)

Sport is therefore constrained by nature’s geophysical limits, and exposed to its extremes. For the purpose of illustrating these relationships in this book, the terms natural environment, nature and natural world will be used interchangeably.

Next, environmental sustainability (ES) is defined by the authoritative United Nations (UN) Brundtland Report (1987) as the safeguarding of the natural environment for current and future generations. Further, Mazurkiewicz (2005) argued that sustainability had environmental implications that encompassed “an organization’s operations, products and facilities; to eliminate waste and emissions; maximize efficiency and productivity of resources; and minimize practices that adversely affect enjoyment of resources by future generations” (p. 35). Meanwhile, Bateh, Horner, Broadbent, and Fish (2014) established that the issues of sustainability “impact all business and non-business organizations, as well as the long-term sustainability of international business relations and quality of life issues worldwide … [and] required expanding beyond conventional thinking” (p. 35).

An application of these positions was utilized to define sport-ES for this text as safeguarding the critical natural environment for current and future generations of sporting participants. It is the responsibility of all members within sport to act to ensure safeguards are in place to maximize all practices for the enjoyment of the natural resources by sport into the future. This responsibility is shared by groups such as the athletes, coaches, team management, game officials, sport organization administrators, members of the sport manufacturing industry, facility and event managers, and so forth. The authors of this chapter promote that in order to meet the demands of sport-ES, we must enact environmental safeguards that support current sporting endeavours and the future of sport.

It is important to note that manuscripts that focused on corporate social responsibility (CSR) that encompassed financial, social, and ES were excluded from review in this text. Exceptions were made if there was a key environmental focus within the manuscript. This positioned sport-ES as important enough to be a stand-alone topic.

Additional parameters included that the manuscripts examined were English-language academic peer-refereed journal publications published from 1994 to June 2019. The publications were found within (1) a sport-related journal (see examples below); (2) or was a sport management manuscript published outside of sport management specific journals (see examples below); (3) or was presented as an example from a management publication that can underscore future sport research topics. The breadth of the manuscripts examined were open to encompass the full range of topics within sport, including the multiple areas of sport (i.e. professional, amateur, or not-for-profit sport) and the multiple sectors of sport (i.e. marketing, sponsorship, event production, facility management, sporting goods, finance, etc.).

Sport management research manuscripts examined were found in sport-related journals (see www.nassm.org/journals/), such as:

• European Sport Management Quarterly;
• Event Management Journal;
• International Journal of Sport Communication;
• International Journal of Sport Finance;
• International Journal of Sport Management;
• International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing;
• International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship;
• International Review for the Sociology of Sport;
• Journal of Applied Sport Management;
• Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education;
• Journal of Sport Behavior;
• Journal of Sport Economics;
• Journal of the Philosophy of Sport;
• Journal of Sport and Social Issues;
• Journal of Sport and Tourism;
• Journal of Sport Management;
• Sociology of Sport Journal;
• Sport in Society;
• Sport Management Education Journal;
• Sport Management Review; and
• Sport Marketing Quarterly.

Sport management research manuscripts examined that were found to be published outside of sport-related journals involved refereed research outlets, such as the following:

• Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability;
• Energy & Building;
• Environment and Energy Report;
• Environmental Education Research;
• Environmental Health Perspectives;
• International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development;
• International Journal of Justice and Sustainability;
• Journal of Business Ethics;
• Journal of Cleaner Production;
• Journal of Contemporary Athletics;
• Journal of Environmental Planning and Management;
• Journal of Management and Sustainability;
• Journal of Sponsorship;
• Journal of Sustainability Management;
• Sustainable Futures: An Applied Journal of Technology, Environment & Society; and
• Urban Studies.

An examination of the sport-ES manuscripts within a wide range of journals is necessary to obtain an understanding of the literature on the important topic of sport and the natural environment.

A dependence on the natural environment as a place for sport

Beyond a requirement for life; the natural environment is critical as the place of sport (McCullough & Kell...