Sports for People and Planet – A Source for Shared Prosperity
Session Partner
What if sport—one of the world’s most powerful economic and cultural systems—became the engine that redefines prosperity, aligning financial growth with human health, social inclusion, and the regeneration of nature?
Worth over $2 trillion, the global sports economy is a vibrant driver of jobs, prosperity, and health, yet it increasingly faces challenges including climate change and nature loss, and physical inactivity. How can sports leverage its cultural influence, collaborative spirit, and economic power to drive systems transformation for thriving societies and natural ecosystems?
Sport is one of humanity’s most powerful social and economic forces – shaping culture, health and community life across the globe. Few fields have such a profound influence on culture and community, uniting people across borders and backgrounds.
Today, the sports economy is a fast-growing, multitrillion-dollar ecosystem powering global sporting mega-events, adventure tourism, sporting goods and equipment, and active lifestyles, emerging as an increasingly attractive asset class for investors and philanthropists. This potential is especially significant in emerging markets, where sport serves as a catalyst for economic and social development. Far beyond entertainment and elite competition, it is also a vital force for health, inclusion and connection: a microcosm of the systems that shape how societies thrive.
Yet rising health and environmental risks, from sedentary behaviour and extreme heat to air and water pollution, threaten not only the growth of this dynamic economy but also its positive impact on people and communities. The sector faces a double imperative: to safeguard the natural systems that make play possible and to reduce its own footprint, from carbon emissions and resource use to waste generation, so that its growth reinforces rather than depletes the foundations on which it relies.
At this pivotal moment, sport has an opportunity to redefine prosperity by integrating financial performance with societal health and environmental well-being. Following the launch of the Sports for People and Planet report, developed by the World Economic Forum with the support of Oliver Wyman, this session convenes key sports economy stakeholders and decision-makers, including sporting goods, city designers, national governments, sponsors and investors, to explore how sport can enhance and amplify its positive impact through multi-stakeholder action on communities, economies, and the environment.