Environmental sustainability of mega-sport events: A comparison of initiatives in developed and developing countries

• Main Author: Konstantaki, M.
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: G Geography (General)
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/13308/1/26.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/13308/; http://www.thic-uum.com/

Sustainability has been coined 'one of the most successful concepts in tourism and event studies that has experienced exponential growth since the mid-1980s‘ (Hall, 2010). Despite its emergence as a popular concept, sustainability is a complex issue that has been poorly understood by stakeholders, policy makers and organisers of mega-sport events. Lohman and Dredge (2012) have noted that even though humans are a fundamental part of the natural environment, leading policy makers such as the International Olympic Committee, have created policies that solely consider impacts to the physical environment (i.e. transportation and pollution) while ommiting other equally significant environmental impacts such as community displacement (Porter et al., 2009), use of facilities after the event (Hiller, 2006) and uneven distribution of benefits within the host community (Gaffney, 2010).This paper will review the issues surrounding environmental sustainability of mega-sports events such as the Summer and Winter Olympic Games and the World Cup. A historical account of movements to improve sustainability, such as the Olympic Charter (IOC, 2007), the International Standards Organisation (ISO, 2010) and the Sustainable Sourcing Code (LOCOG, 2012) will be presented amongst others. The paper will particularly focus on comparing sustainability policies and strategies between developed and developing countries where mega-sport events have been held or are to be held in the near future.