Last weekend, I gave a presentation to Road Race Management’s annual meeting of race directors. The topic was Greening Your Event, and the theme of my talk was Catch The Wave. I’ve posted the presentation on SlideShare.net and encourage you to take a look.
Six weeks ago, Lee and I announced our first major project. (At least it’s the first big project/client that we can talk about–the other two big things we’ve been working on have been for a client that keeps their vendors on a very short leash when it comes to publicity.) Anyway, we’ve learned a lot working with David and Stepanie Deigan of AFMInc, and we’ve got a lot more to learn and work on before this particular project is a wrap.
As you’ll read below, one of the things we’ll be developing as a spin-off of this project will be a comprehensive waste management primer for our clients and other interested race directors, which will be available at no charge to race directors as a PDF download from the Heatsheets Web site.
In the meantime, here’s an update on what we’ve learned:
As mentioned in the previous post, the November issue of Runner’s World listed the 10 Greenest Races in the U.S. No doubt every race on the list deserved recognition for the good work they are doing, but there are a lot of other races across the country–and around the world–that are also doing their part to minimize their environmental impact. So how are we to know which races are truly the greenest?
One thing is for sure: objective measures are needed if the running media is going to be promoting one race as being greener than another.
I’m a big fan of the Council for Responsible Sport and their ReSport Certification program for participant sporting events. Their five metrics and the standards they are developing would be a much better way to figure out which races are the greenest than a simple review of what the races have to say for themselves in press releases.
Here’s hoping that next year Runner’s World will base their top-10 on the number of points participating races earn in the ReSport certification process.
I’ve been meaning to write a news summary post for a few weeks now …
On 10/30, Running USA’s Wire had a rundown of new elements for this year’s ING New York Marathon, including a list of eco-friendly practices and statistics. On the same day, the New York Times Green Inc. business blog had a post about the NY Marathon going greener, which was a follow-up post to one written on 10/14 titled Marathons: Reducing the Runner’s Footprint.
On 9/27, a story in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review previewed initiatives the city’s Great Race was undertaking to reduce the event’s environmental impact. Citiparks program coordinator Alex Shamraevsky, who attended the Road Race Management Green Events Workshop last April, said he “came back with the idea to create several recycling areas at the finish area — marked with green balloons — with city-owned collection bins and even containers for compostable material like banana and orange peels.”
In addition to the Green Inc. blog posts mentioned above, the New York Times has run two other stories recently: Saving the Earth, One Road Race at a Time, and a story about the ING Hartford Marathon taking part in two green projects–the Council for Responsible Sports’ ReSport Certification “seedling” program, and AFMInc’s Heatsheets recycling pilot project.
The November issue of Runner’s World was dubbed the “Green Issue,” and among its many features was a list of the 10 Greenest Races, and a recap of things 14 different races are doing to reduce their environmental impact.
Not to be outdone, Running Times’ November issue also featured a number of green running stories. They’re not available to link to online, but here’s a link to a Running Times Radio podcast on how races can lessen their environmental impact.
Finally, Good Dirt Radio’s current feature is a piece on the running industry’s efforts to go green, with interviews from participants in last April’s Road Race Management Green Events Workshop.
I’m sure I’ve missed a story or two. If you’ve got a link, please send it along via the comments link below.
