Graduation Year

2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.S.

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.)

Degree Granting Department

School of Geosciences

Major Professor

Philip Van Beynen, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Sandra Garren, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Gregory Greenhalgh, Ph.D.

Keywords

Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory, Sports Ecology, Sustainability

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the approach to sustainability of American soccer leagues and provides a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory of the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Sustainability and climate change are rising concerns for most industries, especially the sports industry as it will face many immediate and long term impacts. To address these issues, a sustainability analysis was done of each USL Championship team to assess prominence of sustainability topics from their website. To conduct the GHG inventory, the GHG Protocol was followed and resulted in assessing Scope 1, 2, and 3 of the given soccer team. Assumptions were used to estimate missing data as very little GHG inventories existed for similar size professional sports teams. Results show a lack of attention to sustainability in American soccer. Net GHG emissions of 286,947 kilograms were estimated for the 2021 season of the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Results show over 78 percent of total GHG emissions come from Scope 3, with 22.5 percent and less than 1 percent from Scope 2 and Scope 1 respectively. 73 percent of emissions came directly from transportation emissions, the largest aspect coming from air travel to away matches, consisting of nearly half of total transportation emissions. This estimation can be used for similar sized sports teams to anticipate their GHG emissions and potential environmental impact. There is a large opportunity for the sports industry to implement a more sustainable framework, leading to addressing environmental impact and improving operations.

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