Speakers
Description
Sport events have both positive and negative legacies for the host community (in particular) and the world (in general), one of which relates to the environment. Environmental legacies are concerned with accomplishing sustainability goals such as minimizing negative impacts on the natural resource base, reducing and managing waste, and lowering pollution. This paper proposes retrospective archival research to explore the environmentally friendly efforts undertaken at the Arctic Winter Games. The analysis of the AWG International Committee and past Host Societies (organizing committees) documents show that the environmental initiatives of the AWG fall into the five themes of food system, transportation system, recycling management, air protection, and sustainable construction. We contextualize the AWG organizers' existing efforts toward sustainability and reducing negative impacts on the environment within the larger literature on the environmental legacies of sport. The findings have implications for event management as we consider further possible steps and strategies to support AWG and other sport organizers in their shift toward implementing environmental sustainability programs.