Sustainability in Athletics

Catalog description

This interactive, seminar-style course explores the intersection of environmental sustainability and athletics. Athletic endeavors provide a unique lens to analyze environmental sustainability due to their global reach, engaged fan bases and widely popular sport icons. At the same time, the athletics industry produces an enormous environmental footprint with its travel, events, venue construction and maintenance, high protein diets, global supply chains for equipment, gear and even swag. Because of this reality, the sports industry has the opportunity and responsibility to create meaningful change in support of a sustainable future. We will explore the many ways that the athletics industry can make this change by inviting weekly speakers from a multitude of sports realms to share their expertise, vision and advice. There will be six learning modules addressing sustainability in terms of athletic gear and equipment, sports nutrition, facilities and stadiums, game days and events, the national and international stage, and individual sustainability superstars. Through taking this course, students will develop an understanding for the current state of athletic sustainability as well as future directions and opportunities for the industry in this space. They also get to undertake a real project on campus to further Stanford's commitment to sustainability as a purposeful university. The one unit option focusses on the weekly speakers, reading reflections and a final presentation, where the two unit option incorporates a sustainability in athletics project on campus. A project deliverable and presentation will serve as the culmination of this course. This is a Cardinal Course certified by the Haas Center for Public Service.