Evaluating the Sustainability of a Sport Event through LCSA-Based framework: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Granfondo La Fausto Coppi’s Triple Bottom Line

Sustainability, defined as the intersection of environmental, economic, and social aspects has been the main theme in recent years. In this context, the sport industry plays a proactive role, the mass resonance of sport events makes them powerful tools to promote more responsible behavior and inspire sustainable practices. Triple Bottom Line (TBL) approach provides a directional framework to assess sustainability performance across its three dimensions. However, existing studies on events often lack methodological homogeneity focusing on single dimensions or adopting tailor-made methods that cannot be easily applied to small-medium scale events. This analysis applies a Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) framework to the 2024 edition of the Granfondo La Fausto Coppi, a medium scale cycling event held in Cuneo, Italy, which gathered 2,300 participants and an estimated 7,138 total attendances over the three-day event. The methodological approach follows a common goal and scope definition across all three dimensions, with carefully motivated assumptions in order to adapt standardized methods such as LCSA to the context of the event. The objective is twofold: on one hand, to evaluatethe sustainability performance of the event, identifying areas of improvement and providing insights for the event organizers and stakeholders; on the other hand, to propose an integrated and replicable methodology for the comprehensive analysis of small and medium-sized events, in line with ISO standards and the LCSA framework. For the environmental dimension, the event generated 54.14 tonnes of CO2e within the defined system boundaries, corresponding to 7.58 kg CO2e per attendee. The study reveals that the adoption of sustainable practices - some already implemented and others modeled in the best-case scenario - would lower emissions by nearly 20% compared to a conservative scenario. Economically, the event generated an estimated overall impact of €1.83 million on the local community, calculated through direct expenditures and multipliers, with participants and visitors spending resulting as the main contributor. Socially, the event showed strong international appeal, with participants from 36 countries, while maintaining a significant local relevance, reflected by a 53% return rate across previous editions and high levels of participant satisfaction. By integrating these three dimensions, the study demonstrates the potential of the LCSA approach to provide a holistic and comparable measure of event sustainability, supporting organizational decision-making and fostering the development of sustainable events.