Managers' perspective on environmental impacts in sport venues

Some effort has been made to understand how sustainability is (not) prioritized among an organization's various strategic initiatives, but not how elements of sustainability are prioritized within sustainability efforts themselves. This is important for understanding what managers will pursue in sustainability strategies and their adoption of sustainable practices.

The focus of this study was the buildings where sport and entertainment events take place: stadiums, arenas, convention centers, performing arts centers, and more. Over two hundred venue managers (and unique venues) were surveyed with regard to their prioitization of various sustainability resource inputs and outputs using an uncommon method: Best-Worst Scaling.

Findings suggest that the most important sustainable practices for these venue managers related to (in order of highest to lowest preference): waste, electricity, disposable products use, water, food, emissions, gas, chemicals, and oil. These venue managers priorized practices that were high budget items, easy to measure, as well as highly visible and discussed. Thus, emissions is a low priority as it does not cost anything nor is it commonly measured in the same way that an electrical bill is. This suggests that managers may want to focus upon these high ticket items but acknowledge that it is important to consider the whole sustainability picture in their efforts.

CITE: Ross, W. J. & Mercado, H. (2023). Prioritizing environmental impacts in venues: The manager’s perspective. International Journal of Sport Management, 24 (2), 151-170. Link.

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