Sport, the Environment and Sustainability: Is ‘Sustainable Sport’ Always ‘Environmentally Friendly’ Sport?

Brian Wilson, Professor in Kinesiology at the University of British Columbia, Director of UBC Kinesiology's Centre for Sport and Sustainability, and a member of the Mobilizing Sport and Sustainability Collective, explores links between sport, environmental issues, and the oft-used (but quite ambiguous!) term  'sustainability' -- focusing especially on the question, "is 'sustainable sport’ always ‘environmentally friendly’ sport"? Brian is a sociologist, with interests in relationships between sport, environmental issues, peace, and media

TO SUPPLEMENT THE VIDEO

Additional information about the benefits and limits of carbon offsetting and sport featured in the video -- and (the potential for) greenwashing in/through sport more generally--  can be found here: 

Wilson, Brian (2012). Growth and Nature: Reflections on Sport, Carbon Neutrality, and Ecological Modernization [access for free on Researchgate at link]. In D. Andrews & M. Silk (Eds.), Sport and Neo-Liberalism: Politics, Consumption, and Culture (pp. 90-108). Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Wilson, Brian & Millington, Brad. (2013). Sport, Ecological Modernization, and the Environment  [access for free on Researchgate at link]. In D. Andrews & B. Carrington (Eds.), A Companion to Sport (Wiley-Blackwell Companions to Cultural Studies) (pp. 129-142). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

More information about alternate ways of thinking about sustainability -- with particular attention to the climate crisis and golf -- referred to in the video, can be found here: 

Millington, B. & Wilson, B. (2024). “What Is Lost So That Other Things Can Be Sustained?”: The Climate Crisis, Loss, and the Afterlife of Golf [Open Access paper] Sociology of Sport Journal. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.2023-0216.  

An overview of sociological issues related to sport and environmental issues can be found here:

Wilson, Brian & Millington, Brad. (2020). Introducing a Sociological Approach to Sport, Environmental Politics and Preferred Futures [access for free on Researchgate at link]. In Brian Wilson & Brad Millington (Eds.), Sport and the Environment: Politics and Preferred Futures (pp. 1-28). Bingley, UK: Emerald.

and here:

Wilson, Brian & Millington, Brad (2020). Sport and the Environment [access for free on Researchgate at link]. In Jay Scherer & Brian Wilson (Eds.), Sport and Physical Culture in Canadian Society (pp. 330-354). Toronto: Pearson.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This video was produced with UBC Studios, with particular thanks to Chris Spencer for his wonderful support along the way. Many thanks also to: UBC School of Kinesiology faculty members Drs. Andrea Bundon, Janice Forsyth, Moss Norman and Liv Yoon; UBC Kinesiology doctoral candidate Jeanette Steinmann; Dr. Rob VanWynsberghe of UBC's Educational Studies, and; Dr. Brad Millington of Brock University's Sport Management -- who all kindly reviewed and offered feedback on the script developed for the video and/or the video itself. All mentioned above are members of the Mobilizing Sport and Sustainability Collective and affiliates of the Centre for Sport and Sustainability. 

First Nations land acknowledegement

We acknowledge that the UBC Point Grey campus is situated on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm.


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