The Peter A. Allard School of Law Allard Research Commons Faculty Publications Allard Faculty Publications 2010 The Olympic Games and the Triple Bottom Line of Sustainability: Opportunities and Challenges Joseph Weiler Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia,
[email protected] Arun Mohan Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.allard.ubc.ca/fac_pubs Part of the Environmental Law Commons Citation Details Joseph Weiler & Arun Mohan, "The Olympic Games and the Triple Bottom Line of Sustainability: Opportunities and Challenges" (2010) 1:1 Int'l J Sport & Soc 187. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Allard Faculty Publications at Allard Research Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Allard Research Commons. The Olympic Games and the Triple Bottom Line of Sustainability: Opportunities and Challenges Joseph Weiler, University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada Arun Mohan, University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada Abstract: Growing public expectations that the Olympic Movement and Olympic Host City Organizing Committees be socially, environmentally and economically responsible has made a commitment to integrate sustainability principles and practices a common theme in the bids of cities competing to host the Games. To understand the growing role of sustainability as an Olympic theme, the authors trace the evolution of the sustainability aspirations of the Olympic Movement by looking at the key Olympic Games and bids in this process. The authors determine that unlocking the potential of the Olympic Games to use sport to attract new audiences to sustainable living cannot be done in the absence of the IOC and Organizing Committees deploying credible efforts to “walk their talk.” These efforts include embracing frameworks that produce, track and report on key Games-related economic, envir- onmental and social outcomes, as well as collaborating with credible non-governmental organizations (NGOs).