Sport and Corporate Environmentalism

Abstract

This article examines the notion of sustainable sport in the context of preparations for the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney. More specifically, the article critiques the strategy of `corporate environmentalism', which the organizers have deployed in their attempt to remediate the site of the Games.

“Bring It under the Legacy Umbrella”: Olympic Host Cities and the Changing Fortunes of the Sustainability Agenda

“…By this time, too, the hosts for Sydney 2000 were also looking to create a -Green Games‖. The original bid document, for example, had stated commitment to -energy conservation and use of renewable energy sources; water conservation; waste avoidance and minimization; protecting human health with appropriate standards of air, water and soil quality; [and] protecting significant natural and cultural environments‖ ( [22], p. 346). In due course, the Olympic Park at Homebush Bay would win extensive contemporaneous praise-although rather less since -for its environmentalist credentials [23].…”

Fitness Cultures and Environmental (in)Justice?

“…Papers addressed a range of issues such as "corporate environmentalism" at the Olympic Games (Lenskyj, 1998: 341), ecological awareness amongst ski tourists (Weiss et al, 1998), emotional, ethical and political relationships between humans, animals and the sporting environment in hunting and angling (Franklin, 1998), feminist politics in the nature/sport dynamic (Humberstone, 1998) and feminist ethnography work in experiences of outdoor wilderness living (Pederson, 1998). Since then questions about the environmental impact of sport have come to the fore in policy development and decision-making processes central to the organisation and structure of sport (see for example, Jarvie, 2006;Lenskyj, 1998;Maguire et al, 2002;Richardson 2000;Stubbs, 2008;). Despite such work, the significance of theories and concepts connected to political ecology; a field of enquiry that has been central in organising and legitimizing research, policy, legislation and activism concerning the political, economic and social dimensions of the environment in the UK since the latter half of the twentieth century, has remained only marginal to understandings of sport and environmental problems.…”

Marketing and Environmental Sustainability in the Sport Sector: Developing a Research Agenda for Action

“…A content analysis by Mallen, Stevens and Adams (2011), however, revealed a low level (n=17) of sport ES manuscripts in 21 sport-related journals published from 1987 to 2008. Examples of topics in this literature include environmental impacts of sport (Weiss, Norden, Hilscher & Vanreusel, 1998), greening the Olympics (Cantelon & Letters, 2000;Lenskyj, 1998;Loland, 2006;Preuss, 2007), and golf (Wheeler & Nauright, 2006). Interestingly, although marketing has the majority of the sport research (Mahoney, 2008), there was a noticeable void of marketing-ES studies in the sport journals.…”

“…Discourse indicates a realization that sport impacts the natural environment (Brooks, 2006;Cachay, 1993;Lenskyj, 1998) and that environmental sustainability (ES) in sport management is emerging as a topic of concern. A content analysis by Mallen, Stevens and Adams (2011), however, revealed a low level (n=17) of sport ES manuscripts in 21 sport-related journals published from 1987 to 2008.…”

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AbstractAuthoritative discourse within the literature indicates a realization that sport impacts the natural environment (Brooks, 2006; Cachay, 1993;Lenskyj, 1998) and that environmental sustainability (ES) in sport management is emerging as a topic of concern. The number of sport-related journal articles focusing on environmental sustainability (ES), however has been found to be insufficient (Mallen, Stevens and Adams, 2011).

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