Sport participation to create a deeper environmental identity with pro-environmental behaviors

In this chapter we show how, if managed effectively, participation in some sports can cultivate a deeper environmental identity and pro-environmental behaviors. However, we argue that traditional sport will only be able to contribute to the development of an enhanced environmental identity if fundamental characteristics are changed. In the end, this might prove impossible. Instead, we call for a focus on outdoor and adventure sport (OAS) as an appropriate medium for the development of a deeper environmental identity. To do this we invoke an ecological dynamics perspective on sport and sport participation with its focus on the individual-environment relationship as it provides a principled framework for managing and implementing sport participation and the creation of a deeper environmental identity. We use this model to show how OAS might be designed to enhance environmental identity and pro-environmental behaviors. In this chapter, the word environment specifically relates to outdoor, natural landscapes, and the natural world as differentiated from urban, sterile, fixed, or manicured sport pitches and grounds. The argument presented is that sport participation that explicitly balances the relationship between the individual and the environment is more likely to result in the development of a deeper environmental identity. Further, sports that focus on the individual-environment relationship are also more likely to result in positive behaviors towards the environment such as lifelong sustainable practices. Specifically, we present OAS as ideal activities for facilitating an acceptance that humans are part of the environment, promoting the environment over the task, sponsoring respect for the environment, and cultivating a deeper environmental identity.