Sustainable Initiatives in Sports Organizations—Analysis of a Group of Stakeholders in Pandemic Times

Abstract

This study explores the importance of environmentally sustainable initiatives in sport (ESIS) for stakeholders in pandemic times. Three topics—climate changes and energy consumption, environmental impact of sports events, and health and well-being—were considered and analysed under three sustainability forms: organisational, community, and individual. A total of 5917 stakeholders (sponsors, employees, and members) of a sports organization realised one online survey. The data gathering process occurred during pandemic times, when every kind of collective sport event was suspended to the general public. The descriptive analysis of the results is provided, and the findings reveal that health and well-being is the most valorised topic by members and employees, in a sustainable individual form. On the other hand, sponsors manifest their interest mainly in a sustainability organisational and community forms.

Fans' perceptions of pro-environmental sustainability initiatives in sport and triple bottom line benefits

“…Indeed, recent contributions start highlighting the role of environmentally sustainable initiatives in sport (e.g. Cayolla et al, 2021), even proposing a new concept for sustainability in sport studies: sport ecology (McCullough et al, 2020a). However, further developments regarding its valid and reliable measurement were needed (McCullough et al, 2020b).…”

“…Indeed, recent contributions start highlighting the role of environmentally sustainable initiatives in sport (e.g. Cayolla et al. , 2021), even proposing a new concept for sustainability in sport studies: sport ecology (McCullough et al.…”

“If You Don’t Know Me by Now”—The Importance of Sustainability Initiative Awareness for Stakeholders of Professional Sports Organizations

“…Although the PSO is mostly known for football, in the ranking of sports with the most titles won, football only appears in fourth place, behind athletics, billiards and cycling [34]. According to the knowledge we have concerning PSO stakeholders [27], we believe that this study can be another step towards a better understanding of the behavior of one of the main stakeholders of the sports phenomenon favoring a more sustainable society. There are two SI topics focused in the questionnaire: diversity and inclusion (DIVIN) and attraction and retention of human capital (ARHC).…”

“…The International Olympic Committee, with its work entitled "Manual of Sport and Environment" [26], clarifies key concepts about sport and the environment, provides recommendations and suggests policy and concrete actions. Another study, focused on the awareness of stakeholders concerning sustainable environmental initiatives in sport (ESIS) [27] carried out by a PSO, stresses the importance of these initiatives being more publicized in order to obtain better sustainable behaviors by consumers. The study of websites of professional clubs and leagues has been used by researchers over the years [28][29][30][31].…”

Does pro-environmental attitude predicts pro-environmental behavior? Comparing sustainability connection in emotional and cognitive environments among football fans and university students

“…In sport, an increasingly relevant worldwide industry that even supports a global hierarchy of nations [ 9 ], the relationship between sport organizations and sustainability has seeing growing developments [ 10 , 11 ]. Sport is characterized as a high emotionally involved context between the organizations/teams (the brands) and the fans (the customers) [ 12 ], and past contributions have explored the relationship between sport and the environment in a variety of perspectives, including: the increasing efforts of professional sport teams (PSTs) in promoting pro-environmental sustainability [ [13] , [14] , [15] ]; the perception and participation of fans in pro-environmental initiatives carried out in sport events [ 11 , 16 ] and the influence of sport sustainability actions on fans' pro-environmental behaviors [ 10 , [16] , [17] , [18] ]. This line of inquiry outlines sustainable sport consumer research within the subdiscipline of sport ecology [ 19 ], in which emerging trends are primarily focused on examining the determinants of pro-environmental behaviors of sport consumers, as well as to examine the role of different personal and social elements that may help to explain fans’ engagement in pro-environmental actions [ [20] , [21] , [22] ].…”