Traditionally, the triple bottom line (TBL) relates to the social, economic and environmental impact of an organisation (Parent & Smith-Swan 2013). As the TBL is greatly associated with sustainability, its principles also refer to people, profit and planet (Starkey & Welford 2001). In their framework (see Figure 1), Raj and Musgrave (2009) defined the TBL as the ‘three pillars impacts’ of sustainable events. Thus, the evaluation of an event’s TBL measures “its socio-economic performance, the cultural or social value and outcomes generated, and the degree and effectiveness of environmental impact management” (Jones 2017:53).
Figure 1: The ‘three pillars impacts’ of events | Source: Raj and Musgrave (2009)
Moreover, if TBL is also used to leverage sport events, the lack of commonly used and accessible evaluation tools further complicates the sustainability measurement for event managers (O’Brien & Chalip 2008; Jones 2017). It is therefore easier to measure economic outcomes than intangible impacts, such as behaviour change (Fredline et al. 2005; Andersson & Lundberg 2013; Brown et al. 2015).
References
Andersson, T.D. and Lundberg, E. (2013) ‘Commensurability and sustainability: Triple impact assessments of a tourism event’. Tourism Management, 37(4), 99 – 109.
Brown, S., Getz, D., Pettersson, R. and Wallstam, M. (2015) ‘Event evaluation: Definitions, concepts and a state of the art review’. International Journal of Event and Festival Management, 6(2), 135– 157.
Fredline, E.D., Raybould, M., Jago, L. and Deery, M. (2005) Triple Bottom Line Event Evaluation: A Proposed Framework for Holistic Event Evaluation. ‘Paper presented at the Event Management Research Conference’. Sydney.
Jones, M. (2017) Sustainable Event Management: A Practical Guide. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
O’Brien, D. and Chalip, L. (2008) ‘Sport events and strategic leveraging: Pushing towards the triple bottom line’. In Tourism Management: Analysis, Behaviour and Strategy. Ed A. Woodside, A. and Martin, D. Wallingford, UK: CABI, 318-338.
Parent, M. and Smith-Swan, S. (2013) Managing Major Sports Events: Theory and Practice. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Raj, R. and Musgrave, J. (2009). Event Management and Sustainability. Wallingford, UK: CABI.
Starkey, R. and Welford, R. (2001) The Earthscan Reader in Business & Sustainable Development. London: Earthscan Publishing.
Sustainable Event Guide 
Hello,
I think it is very important to think about sustainability when conceiving an event. However, as you said it is quite difficult to measure the intangible outcomes of a big event. What solutions do you offer to this difficulty? Do you know any ways to evaluate the social impact of an event? How people should include the Triple Bottom Line in their event strategy?
Finally, don’t you think some festival may use this “sustainable argument” to have a positive image? The risk of greenwashing might be high in this case. What do you think about this?
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Measuring the social outcome is real challenge for mega-event per se. However, major organisations tend to assess those impacts through the after-use of facilities and on the extent of how the event itself improve the cultural identity, develop community involvement and increase the likelihood to attract further events. For example, by hosting the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Manchester is still increasing its employment rate around its sports culture and staging many events such as its annual half-marathon. Another one is the 2010 South Africa World Cup, which increased by 9% the country’s attractiveness as a leisure destination after it ended. As well as the negative perceptions on safety and security issues were improved post-event.
Indeed, some company use “sustainability and CSR” as an argument to enhance their band image. It is called “green washing”. This concept was defined to qualify any organisation that are abusing of false advertising about environmental principles, actions or programmes. For instance, the most controversial current event is the 2022 Qatar World Cup. As Qatar compelled to several environmental regulations and norms for the construction of seven new green stadiums and established a legacy plan that aimes to dismantle those facilities and reuse the materials for other projects or to be put in use for the local sporting clubs. Nonetheless, there is little evidence underpinning the Qatar population will effectively benefit from these resources. Quite the opposite, their lack of sporting culture (especially in football) cannot fulfill efficiently the after-use legacy planned for those too vast stadiums. Furthermore, the environmental sensitisation campaign led by Qatar is internationally criticised and undermined because of the poor and questionable working conditions on stadiums construction sites.
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