Eight Steps to Engage your Fans in Sustainability Programmes

By Matthew Campelli, Sport Sustainability Journal

Green Sports Alliance publishes Fan Engagement Playbook to give sports organisations practical tips for getting spectators involved in various sustainability initiatives.

An eight-step guide to help sports organisations build fan engagement into environmental sustainability programmes has been unveiled by the Green Sports Alliance.

‍Published in association with the University of Colorado Boulder, the Fan Engagement Playbook has been billed as a “practical tool” for professionals trying to engineer behaviour-changing fan engagement programmes around environmental sustainability.“Collegiate and professional sports organisations must develop initiatives that meaningfully engage and encourage fans to practice sustainable behaviour at home, work, and play to advance into this next phase of sports sustainability,” states the guide, breaking down the advice into the following eight sections:‍

1. Assess the baseline capacity of your organisation: Making sure your organisation is credible (e.g. is currently demonstrating the behaviour it is trying to instill in other, such as recycling), and making sustainability a core value of the company.

‍2. Identify a desired behaviour change: Choose a behaviour that your organisation actively practices (e.g. composting – at home, in the stadium, composting food scraps, using compostable single-use plastics).