Web Communications of Environmental Sustainability Initiatives at Sport Facilities Hosting Major League Soccer

Abstract

We are living in times of tremendous ecological change (Winn & Kirchgeorg, 2005). In response, the United Nations (UN) promotes a movement towards safeguarding the natural environment or environmental sustainability (ES). Sport has not been immune from the challenges of ES and, thus, the guiding research question of the current investigation was: How does sport communicate its participation in environmental sustainability (ES)? To answer this research question this study focused on sport facilities that were home to a professional Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise during 2011; specifically, the analysis focused on the facilities' website communications on ES. This investigation utilized a content analysis process for data collection that involved four steps framed with an adaptation of the design by Krippendorff (1980) andWeber (1985). Data analysis was framed with the principles of environmental performance by Glavič and Lukman (2007) as well as ES components by Mallen and Chard (2012). The results showed that sport facilities communicated a pattern towards some ES action; specifically, renewable resource use, resource minimization, and recycling were communicated as the key areas of focus for sustainability.

The green waves of environmental sustainability in sport

“…total waste generated, tons diverted and tons recycled) are simple to establish a benchmark and lead to the development of higher order strategic plans and adoption of more advanced environmental innovations. The efforts themselves offer a platform to develop foundational communication platforms and information to diffuse and to communicate to stakeholders (Casper, Pfahl, and McSherry 2012;Ciletti et al 2010;McCullough 2013;Mallen, Chard, and Sime 2013;Pfahl et al 2015). Such a situation makes the first wave a strong link with the diffusion process of environmental action in sport.…”

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

“…Researchers have explored not only the breadth of environmental initiatives, in general, and how the industry as a whole addresses environment sustainability initiatives [36], but they have also focused on how sport organizations communicate these environmental initiatives [38]. For example, Mallen and colleagues focused on MLS facilities, analyzing environmental communications on the website of each team's venue.…”

“…To this end, Francis and colleagues [37] analyzed the same websites as Mallen et al [38] with the purpose of identifying the areas in which the teams were incorporating environmental sustainability. Francis et al found that existing environmental initiatives were grouped into the following categories: stadium design, efficiency and functionality, waste reduction, sustainable food options, community outreach, and waste management (i.e., composting, recycling).…”

Renewable Energy Initiatives at Canadian Sport Stadiums: A Content Analysis of Web-Site Communications

“…Communication of renewable energy initiatives to the numerous stakeholder groups associated with an organization therefore should be a managerial priority. Indeed, the prioritizing of sustainability communications as a tool for shaping brand perceptions has been acknowledged before [9,10].…”

“…Indeed, brand managers must take control over every organizational touch point to manage how the brand is perceived. Indeed, -utilizing all organization-to-stakeholder communication channels (i.e., web communications) to promote brand-building initiatives could assist in enhancing brand loyalty‖ [9].…”