Sustainable Spectacle or Staged Performance? Behind the Curtain of Formula One's Sustainability Strategy

Abstract

In a time where sustainability has become a concern for regulators and the broader society,high-emission organizations face pressure to align their operations with global sustainability goals. This master thesis explores how an emission-intensive organization performs its sustainability strategy when navigating internal priorities and external expectations.Using Formula One as a case study, this thesis finds that Formula One manages its sustainability strategy as a performance designed to align with external expectations, while internally preserving the commercial priorities of its business model. It is analyzed that the sustainability strategy is not embedded into the core of Formula One’s business model but added onto an existing commercial structure. Consequently, sustainability initiatives primarily emerge as a spillover effect from commercially driven decisions, and Formula One’s sustainability strategy is imbalanced across the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of the TBL. While an imbalance is revealed, the organization nonetheless communicates widely about its sustainability efforts. Through rhetorical strategies, Formula One constructs a persuasive frontstage narrative that projects a shift toward sustainable practices and alignment with external expectations. However, a backstage analysis reveals that the sustainability strategy is constrained by the commercial priorities of the business model, shaping the boundaries of what is operationally feasible in terms of sustainability. This misalignment between communication and practice casts doubts on the credibility of Formula One’s sustainability strategy.It is concluded that Formula One’s sustainability strategy, and similar emission-intensive organizations, will remain performative unless sustainability is integrated into the core of their business model. Without such integration, a misalignment between communication and actual practice persists, increasing the risk of accusations of sustainability washing. A managerial framework is developed, capturing this risk of sustainability washing and offering guidance for Formula One and other emission-intensive organizations on how to use the framework as a path to a balanced sustainability strategy.