Environmental sustainability and climate change have become increasingly important in public debates and politics. This study examines the determinants of sport club members’ pro-environmental behavior in Germany. Theoretically, we draw on the theory of planned behavior, ecofeminism, and the luxury good hypothesis to explain the effects of individuals’ environmental consciousness, gender, and income on their pro-environmental behavior, respectively. Data collection took place in 2019 and 2020 via a nationwide online survey of active sport club members in five team/racket sports (n = 3038). Regression analyses were estimated to examine the determinants of two indicators of pro-environmental behavior, i.e., the monthly carbon footprint resulting from traveling to training sessions and pro-environmental actions. The results reveal that environmentally consciousness members behave more environmentally friendly, supporting the theory of planned behavior. Women have a significantly higher carbon footprint, but only in the model including the interaction with environmental consciousness, indicating that female gender only works in conjunction with environmental attitudes. Income is associated with a significantly higher carbon footprint for training, while it has no effect on pro-environmental actions related to club sport. The findings have implications for sport managers and policy makers.

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Sport governing bodies have played a special role in society during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following stakeholder theory and consumption capital theory, this study investigated the actions of the German Bundesliga (DFL), Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) during this phase as perceived by the German population and through the lens of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Based on a representative sample of the German resident population (N = 1,000), the study examined the individual characteristics that influenced the perceived CSR of these organizations and what population clusters emerged from this perception. The survey applied a CSR scale that was previously validated in a professional team sports context. The results confirmed the equally strong applicability of the scale to the sport governing context. Cluster analysis yielded three distinctive clusters, namely, “supporters,” “neutral observers,” and “critics.” Regression analyses and the cluster analysis identified those with frequent consumption and high involvement in sport as rating the actions of the three sport organizations more positively. They are also more strongly represented in the “supporters” cluster. In contrast, those threatened the most by the virus are overrepresented in the “critics” cluster.

To reduce global warming and climate change, the German government plans to implement a carbon tax, which will also affect sport organizations. This study investigates how much sport club members are willing to pay for environmental measures and how sport-specific, club-specific, environmental, and socio-demographic factors are associated with their willingness-to-pay. In 2019 and 2020, active adult sport club members in five team/racket sports were sampled using an online survey in Germany (n = 3036). The contingent valuation method was applied to estimate sport club members’ willingness-to-pay for environmental measures. Regression analyses were employed to investigate a set of factors that are associated with club members’ decision to pay at all and the amount of willingness-to-pay. The results show that 64.3% of respondents reported a positive willingness-to-pay. The average willingness-to-pay for environmental measures amounts to EUR 14.53 per year and to EUR 22.59 for those reporting a positive willingness-to-pay. The results of t-tests show that club members stating a positive WTP differ significantly from members who are not willing to pay anything in terms of sport-specific, club-specific, environmental, and socio-demographic factors. The logistic regression results indicate that the likelihood of reporting a positive willingness-to-pay increases with increasing environmental consciousness, educational level, weekly practice hours, identification and satisfaction with the club, and subjective well-being, while age has a U-shaped effect. The results of a Tobit model show that the amount of willingness-to-pay is positively determined by environmental consciousness, educational level, and satisfaction with the club. The findings suggest that the majority of club members are willing to pay higher membership fees for the implementation of environmental measures in sport clubs. Increasing members’ level of environmental consciousness through educational initiatives represents a way for sport policy and sport managers to help increase financial support for environmental measures among club members.

This study applies the wellbeing valuation approach to sport participation and volunteering using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel. Linear regression results show that sport and volunteering hours increase satisfaction with life, health, work, income, and leisure, but with diminishing returns in most models. In a seemingly unrelated regression, some of these effects turn insignificant. The instrumental variable estimates show causal impacts of sporting hours on all wellbeing measures, while volunteering only impacts health satisfaction. The monetary values vary depending on the type of wellbeing measure and estimator, indicating that future studies should consider the employed measures and estimators.

In the context of leisure travel in sport, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals to promote public health and combat climate change may be addressed simultaneously. This study investigates football spectators’ carbon footprint that is generated from traveling to the stadium. It also examines the effects of stadium travel and everyday pro-environmental behavior on spectators’ subjective well-being. The study uses data that were gathered from an online survey in Germany in 2021 (n = 1605). For a detailed carbon footprint assessment, spectators were allowed to indicate multiple transportation means if they switched them during their stadium journey. Seemingly unrelated regression models were calculated to examine the effect of transportation behavior (i.e., stadium travel) and everyday recycling, consumption, and energy-saving behavior on life satisfaction and happiness. Traveling to a home game caused an average carbon footprint of 7.79 kg CO2-e per spectator, or 190.4 tons CO2-e for all home game spectators. Regression results showed that sustainable consumption increased both well-being measures while recycling behavior only positively contributed to happiness. Stadium travel and energy-saving behavior showed no significant effect. These findings implicate that achieving both sustainable development goals can go hand in hand in some contexts of pro-environmental behavior, but not in all dimensions.

Gender equality in leadership positions is important for sport organizations to achieve economic and social sustainability. Based on a multi-level framework, this study examines spillover effects from economic and social state-level factors in sport organizations’ environment on critical masses of women on their boards (in terms of share and numbers) and board gender diversity (reflected by different types of boards). Data of national and regional sport governing bodies in Germany were collected (n = 930), with variables capturing organizational characteristics (e.g., board composition) and economic and social factors at the state level. The results of regression analyses show that women’s attainment in tertiary education increases the likelihood of a critical mass of at least 30% women on the board, and a higher divorce rate increases the likelihood of a critical mass of three women on the board. Sport organizations in states with a higher gender wage gap are more likely to have balanced boards, indicating that volunteering might be a substitute to paid work. The findings suggest that the presence of women in sport leadership is affected by economic and social conditions in the organizations’ geographical surroundings and that spillover effects occur from the state level to the organizational level.

Environmentally friendly behavior has become increasingly important in recent years to reduce the speed of climate change and its negative impacts. Individual behavior, including environmentally friendly behavior, is largely formed by behavioral intentions. This study draws on the theory of planned behavior to examine the effects of attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control on intentions of environmentally friendly behavior. It also investigates differences between genders and among sports. The study is based on data from a nationwide online survey of community sports club members in Germany in five team/racket sports (n = 3,036). Existing measures to operationalize the constructs were adapted to the present research context. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results show that the theoretical assumptions of the theory of planned behavior were largely supported by the data, implying that the antecedents of environmentally friendly behavioral intentions can be applied to club members. Furthermore, gender- and sports-specific differences in the antecedents–intention relationship were detected. This study is among the first to examine environmentally friendly behavioral intentions in community sports clubs. It adds to an increasing body of research investigating environmental sustainability in sports.