Marketing Pro-Environmental Venues in Professional Sport: Planting Seeds of Change Among Existing and Prospective Consumers

Abstract

Professional sport organizations are showing increasing interest in proenvironmental strategies, as evidenced in part by the recent incorporation of sustainable design in many facilities. This interest may be driven by the perceived positive outcomes associated with the triple bottom line (TBL), which illustrates the environmental, social, and economic benefits of proenvironmental initiatives. The TBL has been the subject of both acclaim and criticism by scholars and practitioners, and this study provides new insight into its appropriateness as a reflection of proenvironmental organizations' motives. Through standardized interviews, the authors found that professional sport organizations place particular emphasis on the TBL's social component, which represents the objectives of increasing environmental awareness among fans and attracting new consumers. This study contends that the TBL's three components are closely intertwined, and the implementation of commercial and social marketing strategies is necessary to attend to and realize the organizations' stated goal of maximizing all three components.

The green waves of environmental sustainability in sport

“…Various other stakeholders (e.g. environmental activists, media personnel and political officials) held different influences and impacts on decision-making, offering them a presence in the discussion, but one that is highly contextual (Kellison and Kim 2014;Kellison and Hong 2015). In the end, areas such as cost savings, goodwill and brand differentiation were important factors in ownership/champions adopting environmental innovations in stadia design (Kellison and Hong 2015).…”

“…driving progression/regression through the waves) and is an underexplored space within sport contexts McSherry 2012, Casper, Pfahl, andMcCullough 2014;Mallen and Chard 2011). Research into relationship development and cultivation can improve understandings of isomorphic development over time and across the web of stakeholder relationships established through environmental activities (Kellison and Kim 2014;Kellison and Hong 2015).…”

Pro-Environmental Behaviour of Attendees at a Major Sport Event in Cameroon

“…Fan engagements that are environmentally driven are motivated by a number of reasons, including the need for the increase in fan identification, cost-saving, the promoting of positive environmental behaviours, and the increasing of the positive perceptions of the sport event organisers (Casper et al, 2019). Reaching out to the sport event attendees has, thereby, become a part of the organisations' contribution towards environmental sustainability, with the objective being to instil pro-sustainable behaviour in the attendees (Kellison & Kim, 2014;McCullough & Kellison, 2016;Casper et al, 2019). In agreement with the above, McCullough and Kellison (2016) caution that sport event organisers and sport organisations can strategically leverage their brands so as to promote sustainable behaviours by the sport event attendees.…”

Achieving Sustainability beyond Zero Waste: A Case Study from a College Football Stadium

“…Many professional and collegiate leagues have adopted energy or water conservation efforts, increased recycling and/or composting rates, purchased or generated renewable energy, constructed Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) stadiums or arenas and engaged fans to increase awareness about environmental problems [1][2][3]. Athletic events offer a great opportunity for engaging with a large, diverse audience that may not be familiar with sustainability issues and can generate pro-environmental public relations messaging to a broad audience at relatively low cost [4,5]. Academic research on the greening or sustainability of sporting events has increased over the past decade [4,[6][7][8][9][10].…”