Applying Doughnut Economics to Major Sport Events
The application of the Doughnut Economics to the International German Gymnastics Festival
As part of the Sportainable project seminar at the University of Bayreuth, we explored an exciting and forward-thinking topic: “The application of the Doughnut Economics to the sports sector“.
During the seminar, we engaged deeply with Kate Raworth's Doughnut Economics, analyzing its ecological and social dimensions and applying them to the sports sector—an area where this approach is still entirely new.
For my project, I focused on a sports event. My chosen event was the International German Gymnastics Festival 2025, where I analyzed the event’s organization and explored ways to make it more sustainable using the 4 Lenses Tool from the DEAL community.
However, I quickly realized that Raworth’s Doughnut was not fully tailored to sports events. To bridge this gap, I developed a "Sport Event Doughnut", a framework designed to help event organizers integrate sustainability and social responsibility into their planning. By creating a sport event doughnut, I wanted to ensure true "Sport Event Happiness" by prioritizing ecological and social well-being.
Using the Sport Event Doughnut, I evaluated the sustainability of the International German Gymnastics festival 2025. This first draft of the model needs to be tested with more events and refined over time.
I’m grateful to have worked on such a meaningful and future-oriented topic and hope that our insights will contribute to a more sustainable sports industry.
A big thanks to my supervisor,
Share
