Drivers of Environmental Policies in Swiss Sport Federations: A Multiple Case Study of the Agenda Setting Process

Through the great number of people practising sport, sport has not only positive functions. It can be deleterious to the environment, for example through travel behaviour or the destruction of natural habitats caused by sport activities and required infrastructure (McCullough et al., 2020). National sport federations, which represent sport clubs and engage in sport policy issues, could be crucial when addressing environmental sustainability in and through organised sport. However, sport federations are traditionally primarily committed to the interests of their members and the sport as their core business (Thiel & Mayer, 2009). Therefore, this study addresses the question to what extent environmental policies are set on agendas in national sport federations and which drivers are relevant for the agenda setting of such policies. A multiple case study with seven Swiss sport federations oriented at the multiple streams approach by Kingdon (1984) was conducted. The findings show that environmental policies were primarily driven by national regulations or pushed by engaged policy entrepreneurs. Member and sponsor interests, functional issues and practices of similar federations could further facilitate or impede agenda setting. Understanding drivers in the agenda setting of environmental policies in national sport federations is especially important because it is a prerequisite for the subsequent decision making and implementation of such policies and can help to shape the response of the organised sport to environmental challenges.

Key words: sport ecology, ecological sustainability, sport associations, policy genesis, multiple streams approach

References

Kingdon, J. W. (1984). Agendas, alternatives, and public policies. Little Brown and Co.

McCullough, B. P., Orr, M., & Watanabe, N. M. (2020). Measuring externalities: The imperative next step to sustainability assessment in sport. Journal of Sport Management, 34(5), 393–402.

Thiel, A., & Mayer, J. (2009). Characteristics of voluntary sports clubs management: A sociological perspective. European Sport Management Quarterly, 9(1), 81–98.