The Routledge Handbook of Events and Sustainability

This book provides a comprehensive overview and systematic guide to the current state of knowledge on events and sustainability. Offering multidisciplinary insights from leading scholars, the book explores contemporary issues, challenges and trends.

The book starts with an introduction by the editors, defining key concepts and issues, as well as a discussion of the sustainable event debates. Specifically commissioned and carefully selected individual contributions are divided into eight main sections which critically explore the key areas of events and sustainability, providing expert-led insights into timely and relevant topics such as social and cultural responsibility, economic sustainability, environmental sustainability, sustainable events and education, inclusivity, supply side and technology and sustainability. The book concludes with a discussion by the editors of the debates in event sustainability, with a view to identify emerging issues and future research agendas.

This handbook will be of pivotal interest to scholars, students and policy-makers working in events, tourism and hospitality management.

Julie Whitfield has over 20 years of experience teaching Events Management. She joined Bournemouth University in September 2005, where she is the postgraduate programme leader for the M.Sc. Events Management programme in the Sport & Events Management Department at Bournemouth University Business School. Her research interest in Events and Sustainability spans over a decade, with earlier publications such as ‘Scoring Environmental Credentials: A Case Study of the UK Conference Sector’, published in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism in 2014, to more recent publications such as ‘How can we reduce conference venues’ use of single-use plastics?’, which was published in Event Management in 2022. Julie is also the Co-Founder of the International Conference for Events (ICE) Making Waves, a leading international conference for events management academics and practitioners.

Mary Beth Gouthro is a senior academic in the Sports & Events Management Department in the Bournemouth University Business School. Her research interests in events span the event/festival experience, event sustainability and aspects of customer satisfaction in events. Mary Beth is currently an executive member of the Association for Event Management Educators (AEME) and leads AEME’s Event Sustainability SIG (Special Interest Group). Mary Beth is also a member of Bournemouth University’s SAN (Sustainability Academic Network) and is a Climate Fresk-trained facilitator.

Miguel Moital is a principal academic in Events Management in the Department of Sport & Events Management, Bournemouth University Business School. Miguel's research interests include broad issues around the marketing of events, tourism and hospitality, with an emphasis on consumer psychology. He currently lectures on the Foundation Year and on the BA (Hons) Events Management. He also regularly supervises a number of UG and PG dissertations. In line with his passion for supervising students, in 2020, Miguel launched the Dissertation Academy YouTube Channel, where he shares unique tips and tools to help students from across the world to write better dissertations and theses.