Are sport organisations environmentally sustainable? – A website analysis of sport federations in Belgium

ABSTRACT

Research question: Sport is recognised as a significant contributor to a sustainable future. Sport federations (SFs) in particular can play an important role in this regard. However, literature that focuses on environmental sustainability (ES) in the sector is limited. To this end, the purpose of this study is to examine the institutionalised behaviour of SFs by analysing their environmental initiatives, environmental strategy and to detect and discuss opportunities for further development.

Research methods: For the study, all available websites of the SFs in Belgium were examined by means of a content analysis. To assess the current behaviour of SFs and determine their progress in terms of ES, an extended version of the environmental wave typology created by McCullough and colleagues (2016) is empirically applied.

Results and Findings: The results reveal a low commitment to ES, indicating that not dealing with the environment is still institutionalised in their natural behaviour. Only 37 of the 141 included SFs, communicated environmental initiatives or strategical considerations. The majority of the identified actions were low-intensity initiatives and only four federations provided a comprehensive strategic approach.

Implications: This study contributes to the emerging research on ES in sport by examining the underresearched SF sector and applying the institutional theory to understand which factors influences their environmental behaviour. Opportunities that can initiate a positive change in the sector are described and due to its methodological approach, the study can serve as a blueprint for future research on the environmental performance of sport and other organisations.

KEYWORDS:

• Website communication
• environmental initiatives
• environmental strategy
• environmental wave typology
• institutional theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.