Public events: Can they make a contribution to ecological sustainability?

Relatively few scholarly articles deal with the environmental impacts of events, and those they do tend to focus upon their negative impacts. This paper seeks to introduce some balance into this area by addressing the roles events can potentially play in progressing broader community goals associated with environmentally sustainable development. Specifically, this paper begins by examining the relationship between events and ecological sustainability, highlighting the key role of the Olympic Movement in this regard. It will then move on to identify key forces that are acting to lead events down this path. Following on from this discussion the issue of how public events have responded to the challenge of ecological sustainability will be addressed. This paper concludes by arguing that events will have little choice but to increasing move towards the adoption of more environmentally benign practices, and that a number are already leading the way in this regard.