Urban environment-friendly behaviors in public cultural-sports spaces in the provinces of Iran

The human environment has been exposed to the most unprecedented damage since the twentieth century due to the rapid industrial development around the world. The Aim of this study is to realize urban environmentally friendly behaviors in sports from the perspective of managers and organizers of sport events. In this research, the we tried to design a model for holding environmentally friendly sport events in Iran. In order to collect data, a 4-part researcher-made questionnaire consisting of 40 questions was used. Formal and content validities were confirmed by experts, and reliability was calculated 0.83 out of 1, using Cronbach's alpha test. The statistical sample of the study consisted of managers and organizers of sport events in ten provinces (Tehran, Alborz, Isfahan, East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, Khuzestan, Khorasan Razavi, Kurdistan, Lorestan and Kermanshah). After distributing the questionnaires, 254 questionnaires were returned. Research data analysis was performed using AMOS and SPSS-19 software. Pearson correlation coefficient and path analysis statistical tests were used to test the hypotheses and bootstrap method was used to test the indirect relationships. The results showed that the three factors of environmental awareness, perception of environmental effects and intention to support green sport events affect the actual environmentally friendly behavior. The results also showed that the variable of intention to support green sport events acts as a mediating variable and a measure of the effect of environmental awareness and perception on the actual environmentally friendly behavior resulting from the intention to support green sporting events. According to the proposed research model, the environmentally friendly behaviors of organizers and managers of sporting events and their intention to support green sporting events are greatly influenced by their awareness and perception of environmental issues. It seems that understanding the basic factors influencing the real and supportive behaviors of people in green sports is necessary to promote environmental behavior.