Abstract
Objective: The current research was done with the aim of the role of sport in sustainable environmental development. From the point of view of the goal, the research method is applied – developmental and exploratory type of qualitative research method has been used in order to collect data. The statistical population included all top managers of sport organizations (including National Olympic Committee, Ministry of Sports and all sports federations), specialists and experts of sport management in Iran and some managers of the Iranian Department of Environment. Using purposive sampling method and snowballing technique 13 experts were considered as. The semi-structured interview was used as data collection tool. Data analysis was done using grounded theory through open, axial and selective coding. The results indicated that the pattern of the sustainable environmental development based on the sport consists of 211 concepts and 26 subcategories which 4, 4, 5, 8 and 4 categories were related to the causal factors, the fields and domains, mediating variables, strategies and consequences, respectively, and one category was also considered as axial phenomenon. According to the results from the model it was indicated that the sustainable environmental development based on the sport is affected by foresight, environmental values of sport, environmental requirements of sport, green sports movement, educational and research, communication and promotional elements, economics, structural, and managerial factors and can also lead to green productivity in sports and the quality of life and well-being of citizens.
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