A Forecast for the Mainstreaming of Environmental Sustainability

Timothy B. Kellison
Brian P. McCullough

By their very nature, public assembly facilities (PAFs) and the events hosted within them attract large numbers of visitors, who are often treated to state-of-the-art performances and exhibits while being offered an exceptional array of amenities. Of course, these offerings can come with considerable costs, including those borne by the host and, central to this review, the environment. Increasingly, industry leaders are exploring strategies aimed at reducing the environmental impacts of their facilities, events, and services—strategies that can often result in reductions of both types of cost. In the past two decades, many organizations have incorporated pro-environmental initiatives into their corporate identity and practices, yet the sport and entertainment industry as a whole has been slower to adopt and implement large-scale sustainability mandates (e.g., Kellison & Hong, 2015). Furthermore, a 2013 report by MIT Sloan Management Review found that only 3% of media and entertainment companies “fully engage” with environmental issues (Kiron, Kruschwitz, Rubel, Reeves, & Fuisz-Kehrbach, 2013).