Towards mindful sport consumption

This chapter examines the complex relationship between sport, sustainability, and marketing, with a particular focus on how sports events both contribute to environmental problems and can act as drivers of sustainable behavior change. Fans, supporters and athletes are central to bringing about change to protect the sport for their community and future generations. Sport is a global industry with major economic, social, and cultural influence, yet its environmental impacts, from travel emissions to infrastructure and sponsorship practices are often overlooked. This chapter critically assesses both the opportunities and contradictions of sport sustainability. The authors review evidence from a wide range of studies and sport contexts (including football, golf, winter sports, Formula One, and mega-events) to discuss environmental impacts, fan engagement strategies, sponsorship practices, and sustainability initiatives.

The chapter shows that climate change is already disrupting sport through heatwaves, flooding, rising sea levels, and changing weather conditions, while sport itself contributes substantially to greenhouse gas emissions, particularly through travel and infrastructure. At the same time, sport organizations can positively influence fans’ environmental awareness and behaviors through sustainability campaigns, although the authors also highlight major challenges linked to greenwashing, fossil-fuel sponsorships, and the continued growth-oriented model of global sport.

Sport organizations need to move beyond symbolic sustainability actions by embedding environmental responsibility into operations, sponsorship decisions, fan engagement strategies, and long-term event planning while promoting more sustainable forms of sport consumption. Recently, a new Olympic motto was proposed: “Rather than ‘Citius, Altius, Fortius’ (‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’). The authors instead suggest that we rather now need ‘Tardius, Proprius, Leviora’ (‘Slower, Closer, Lighter’) footprints.

CITE: Koenig-Lewis, N., Collins, A. & McCullough, B. (2025) Game-On! – Sport (events) as a driving force for sustainability, pp: 331-346, in Peattie, K., DeAngelis, R., Koenig-Lewis, N., & Strong, C. (2025) (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Marketing and Sustainability, Abingdon. Routledge.

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