Environmental Impact of March Madness Attendees

In a recent study, Brian McCullough teamed with J. A. Cooper to examine the carbon footprint of attendees of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. They estimated the footprint as 210 million kg of CO2 equivalents, or 500 kg per attendee. Most of the impact was due to travel. The authors concluded: “This study's results demonstrate the need to make mega sport-tourism events like March Madness more sustainable. However, this can only be done by tourism managers closing the environmental value-action gap that too often manifests as inaction.”

Cooper, J. A., & McCullough, B. P. (2021). Bracketing sustainability: Carbon footprinting March Madness to rethink sustainable tourism approaches and measurements. Journal of Cleaner Production, 318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.128475