From climate role models to everyday excuses

Stefan Schaltegger, Professor of Sustainability Management at Leuphana University Lüneburg, has also worked on sports and football issues in particular. Only recently, he told the specialist magazine Kicker in response to questions about sustainability that the European Championship had "a good and ambitious concept". The fundamental question is whether major events such as the European or World Championships, the Winter or Summer Olympics and other events can be organised and held sustainably? What can be said about this from a scientific point of view?

Now - a good 14 days after the Spanish title win, the victorious team in the quarter-finals over the resurgent Team Germany - an interview starts with the fundamental question: Can major events be sustainable in principle?

Major events have both particularly positive and negative effects. In absolute terms, I don't know of any major event that has no negative and only positive ecological, social and economic effects in every respect. For example, every event causes traffic, waste and energy consumption. Many events are associated with tensions or even conflicts, which can take on different dimensions from hooliganism to national political disputes. However, it would be too one-sided to consider only the negative aspects. It is also worth asking what people would do if they did not go to the stadium. If they drive through the countryside in their cars instead, this is not necessarily more sustainable.

What is the social value of sport?

On the positive side, there is hardly any other area in society that can connect very different social groups and peoples as well as sport and its events. The basic idea behind the Olympic Games and many sporting events is the idea of bringing people together, of rules-based fairness and the celebration of common ground. With its rules and events, sport is an achievement of civilisation that allows people to compete and come together peacefully. Many people are motivated by top sporting events to take up sport themselves. When almost 50,000 people run the Berlin Marathon, it is a socially unifying event that motivates many to take part in sport throughout the year and stay healthy. In a society that is increasingly characterised by obesity and physical inactivity, this effect should not be underestimated. Many people, especially those with little education, first learn to fit into a group and follow rules as a virtue through sport. Depending on how sustainability is taken into account or not, athletes and sporting events can act as positive or negative role models for many people. The fact that the organisers of major events set themselves ambitious sustainability goals is therefore very welcome when it comes to creating a positive social impact.

Back to the European Championships: many partners, responsible decision-making bodies, are said to have been involved in the conception of the European Championships. Has tournament director Philipp Lahm achieved his goal of organising a climate-friendly football festival that can also serve as a model for subsequent events?

Many things were very well planned, such as the use of existing stadiums and green electricity, the reusable concepts, the climate fund for sports clubs and short travelling distances between the stadiums in the preliminary round. Other goals were not achieved well, such as rail travel for almost all fans and the avoidance of short-haul flights. All excuses are useless: unfortunately, the railways embarrassed Germany internationally and did not do a good job of promoting public transport. Overall, however, I would rate the European Championships in Germany as a clear improvement on previous international football events, despite the huge potential for improvement that remains.

Deutschlandfunk radio recently investigated the fact that the national teams did not fulfil their role model function. The plan was to avoid domestic flights between matches wherever possible - travelling by coach would have sent out positive signals. This did not work out. Very few teams adhered to the guidelines. What can we learn from this?

The short-haul flights of some teams over sometimes ridiculous distances (such as the 25-minute flight of one team from Hanover to Hamburg) are definitely bad signals. Hardly any national team has been a role model in this respect. I read that the Swiss team was almost the only one to rely entirely on rail travel and coaches for transporting equipment. Compared to the fan trips, however, the team journeys are hardly significant in the overall sustainability balance of the European Championships. But if the railways are not able to get 50,000 or more fans to and from the stadium on time and in dignified conditions, then this is a planning and organisational failure on the part of both the railways and the organisers, which ended in traffic chaos and crazy flight bookings. In terms of setting an example, the organiser could have transported all the national teams across the country in hydrogen-powered coaches, for example, and this would have been an opportunity for the German automotive industry to present itself in a progressive way. Instead, Chinese suppliers have taken over the stadium advertising stage in Germany as a car country. A lot of potential was wasted here, but hopefully future organisers will now be able to organise this better.

From a scientific point of view, does the organisation of major events need to be fundamentally rethought?

There are many well-founded concepts for the sustainable organisation of sporting and cultural events that can be used for the sustainability management of clubs, a national league, a European and World Championship or the Olympic Games, depending on the initial situation. Research can and must certainly make further contributions, but the potential of applying existing concepts has not yet been exhausted. Many sponsors are also interested in ensuring that the events they support have a good sustainability record and are perceived positively. That is why it is currently more a question of further training and the will to implement.

You yourself were a competitive athlete, nominated several times in the national athletics team and later internationally successful in triathlon and duathlon. Many things will be different for athletes today: greater pressure from organisers and sponsors, enormous social media expectations. Can individual athletes make a difference?

Until the 1970s, sustainability was hardly an issue in sport, but during my active time as an athlete at the end of the 1980s, environmental issues also came up in combination with health risks and doping cases were publicised. Of course, there was less money involved. But social awareness was already very high, the environmental movement was on the rise and many athletes began to campaign for a healthier, cleaner and more socially responsible world. There was no social media as we know it today, but as everyone read newspapers, the publicised impact of the statements and actions of sporting greats was certainly there. Regardless of the media channels, sports personalities can raise awareness through the attention they enjoy and exert a great influence as role models. Personalities like Philipp Lahm are aware of this and also act courageously and impressively in favour of more sustainability.

Thank you very much for the interview!