An Exploratory Analysis of the Environmental Sustainability Performance Signaling Communications among North American Sport Organizations

Abstract

Sport organizations across North America promote and claim deep commitments to environmental issues through sustainability performance signaling. These signals are conveyed through external associations or memberships (e.g., Green Sports Alliance) or internally (e.g., environmental reports and communications). However, researchers have not explored this communication strategy as it relates to environmental initiatives in sport nor compared environmental communications of sport organizations from the major professional sport leagues in North America. We analyzed the websites of 147 North American sport organizations and their associated venue websites for environmental performance signaling communications. We found that only one sport organization featured an environmental report on its website, and 42 sport organizations highlighted environmental initiatives through dedicated webpages on the respective team or venue’s website. Predominately, these communications focused on fan engagement initiatives (i.e., awareness, participation) but lacked goal setting, measurement metrics, or performance summaries. We discuss these themes, the implications, and recommendations for how sustainability performance signaling can be better leveraged in the North American sport sector.

The ebbs and flows of green waves: environmental sustainability in Grand Slam tennis

“…It should be acknowledged that the results of the content analysis in this study may not contain an exhaustive list of all the sustainability initiatives each of the four Grand Slam events are engaging in, but rather what initiatives they are choosing to communicate through the event websites. Therefore, at the very least, communicating sustainability information concerning an event's environmental effort offers an opportunity to raise awareness and indicate to the public the importance an event places on its sustainability initiatives (McCullough et al , 2020a, b). Furthermore, it has been found that organizations may obtain increased support from stakeholders and build a stronger public image by communicating their sustainability initiatives to the community (Du et al , 2010).…”

“…Nevertheless, the focus of scholarship is still disproportionately narrow when compared to the scope and significance placed on the intercept of sport and the environment that shape sport ecology as a distinct subdiscipline (McCullough et al , 2020a, b). This study contributes to the emerging sport ecology body of knowledge with a focus on Grand Slam tennis events, exemplifying the need to realize more comprehensive and strategic initiatives.…”

“…Environmental sustainability is a global concept that has become an essential component of the sport industry. As a result, scholarly attention has moved to the point of demarcating the relationship between sport and the environment, and establishing “sport ecology” as a new subdiscipline within sport management (McCullough et al , 2020a, b). Looking back over the last three decades, the interest in examining the impact of sport on the environment has remained strong.…”

Collegiate athletics environmental sustainability efforts within STARS reporting

“…campus sustainability office) and not the athletic department (Pfahl et al, 2015). This is a basic sustainability effort and proof of practice may be easily found on athletic webpage or signage at venues and events and be completed using student volunteers at events (McCullough et al, 2020b). However, the athletic team certification program had significantly less amount of point attainments across all NCAA divisions.…”

“…Encouragingly more sport organizations are engaging in environmental sustainability initiatives. However, the sector, as a whole, is in the initial phases of this movement focusing on elementary elements of environmental design and management (Babiak and Trendafilova, 2011) more so than focusing on environmental reporting (McCullough et al, 2020b).…”