More and more races are asking participants what they think of the event’s efforts to green things up, typically as part of a post-event survey. But I can’t recall having a client ask runners about their green initiatives pre-race, specifically as part of the registration process.

In the there’s-a-first-time-for-everything category, the Chevron Houston Marathon folks are doing just that. And the response rate is not only high, but the rate of positive responses is very encouraging:

• When asked “are you aware of the Houston Marathon Committee’s efforts to go green,” 53% of registrants (8,188 runners) answered yes.
• When asked “is participating in a certified green event important to you,” 51% of runners (7,942 runners) answered yes.

In regards to the second bullet, Houston runners should be pleased: the Houston Marathon Committee intends to pursue certification from the Council for Responsible Sport next January.

By the way, Houston’s numbers compare very favorably with recent post-race survey results from the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run:

• 63% of respondents said they were aware of Cherry Blossom’s application for CRS Certification, and
• 82% of respondents said that green certification was important to them.

Other tidbits from the Cherry Blossom survey included:

• 79% of respondents said there were “concerned” to “extremely concerned” about the environmental impact of running events, and
• 81% preferred receiving an iGiftBag Virtual Goodie Bag over a conventional goodie bag.

If you’ve got interesting survey results to share on the subject of greening races, please do so via the comments box.

The other day, I had a great meeting with Ben DeWitt and Tom Taylor, the guys behind Compete Green and the Ojai 2 Ocean Marathon (half marathon, too). As they say: Our mission is to enjoy healthy, endurance lifestyles while promoting sustainability and environmental awareness through our events. We strive not to just use our beautiful world, but to become a growing and symbiotic part of it.

I’ve got to say, it’s so refreshing to see two young guys trying to do the right thing as they launch their green event management business. Not that I don’t have a lot of respect and admiration for all the event organizers of existing events that are trying to retrofit their product and processes to be more sustainable, but when you’re starting from scratch, like Ben and Tom are, it  can give you a tremendous head start on going green.

How so? Well, you can start fresh with a network of like-minded vendors, for one thing. Compete Green is working directly with suppliers like Greenlayer Sports, Tribute Sport and Walden Surfboards to source eco-friendly apparel, medals made from recycled materials and mile markers made from old surfboards, respectively. Add to that a commitment to support environmental charities — in Ojai 2 Ocean’s case by auctioning off the 13th and 26th mile markers — and you’ve got the makings of a green racing revolution.

As the green event movement matures, look for more young entrepreneurs like Ben and Tom to take up the mantle of racing towards a better environment.

At the recent Plastics Recycling Conference in New Orleans, held March 1-2, Jerry Powell, Executive Editor at Resource Recycling, gave a presentation titled Eureka! All plastics can be made degradable. A PDF of his presentation is available here.

The reason we’re sharing Jerry’s presentation with you is simple: ever since we first wrote about the growing confusion about what to do with plastic bottles — recycle or compost them — event directors have been bombarded with conflicting messages about the wonders of things like Coke’s new “plant bottle.”

With conflicting info, what’s a race director to do? Don’t mix degradable plastics with recyclable plastics. And, don’t believe all the marketing hype you may be hearing about degradable plastics.

We’ve all had the experience of holding something in our hands that we knew was recyclable — a Tyvek envelope or race number, plastic bag, to-go coffee cup sleeve, Heatsheet, etc. — but we just couldn’t find a convenient place to recycle the item. Why?

Well, there are two answers to the question why:

1. there isn’t a viable market for the material, and/or
2. there isn’t a robust system for collecting the material.

Eco-Logistics has been working with AFMInc for quite some time on the mechanics of collecting Heatsheets at events for recycling, but a formal relationship with someone who would actually use the recycled material didn’t exist … until recently. We knew Trex Company was a likely partner, and AFMInc’s Wil Turner has been persistent, so here’s the good news:

Advanced Flexible Materials and Trex Company Announce Heatsheets Recycling Program

Recycled Thermal-reflective Blankets Will Become Durable and Eco-Friendly Trex Wood-alternative Decking and Railing

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Two of the races we’ve worked on recently had noteworthy accomplishments:

First off, the Lilac Bloomsday Run earned certification from the Council for Responsible Sport (CRS). Bloomsday is the largest event to earn certification from CRS.

CRS Certification lists a total of 41 possible credits in six areas representing waste, climate, equipment & materials, community & outreach, health promotion, and innovation. Bloomsday was able to earn 23 credits among the six categories. Two notable credits earned by Bloomsday include achieving a 10% reduction in waste from its 2009 event and the event’s STA’s “Bloomsday Express” service, which shuttled over 20% of Bloomsday participants to and from downtown Spokane. Ridership in the shuttle service was up 13.9% in 2010. Credit was also given for collaboration between Bloomsday, Hoopfest and the City of Spokane in increasing public awareness of recycling by creating an inventory of Clearstream containers that will be available for public events.

“This certification is a testament to the people of Spokane,” said Lilac Bloomsday Association President Carol Hunter. “Bloomsday has been successful over the years only because thousands of individuals have come together for a common goal. The effort resulting in this certification is no different as it was achieved through the work of committed organizations and volunteers. We have every confidence that Spokane and all Bloomsday participants will continue to support these environmental initiatives in Bloomsdays to come.”

Secondly, recycling and composting efforts at the Oregon Wine Country Half Marathon  produced remarkable results: the total weight of trash sent to the landfill was just 40 pounds (for a race of 1,600 participants)! The recovery rate was 96.3%, with recycled glass weighing 400 pounds, mixed recycling weighing 140 pounds and composting weighing 500 pounds.

We look forward to working with both events again in the future.

I’m a pretty loyal guy, and brand name companies have to do a lot to lose (or earn) my support. For years, I’ve been a big fan of The Home Depot, all because of their support for American Olympic Athletes through their jobs program. Even when Home Depot scrapped the program, I stuck with them … until today.

Today’s Waste & Recycling News features a story about Lowe’s and the “one-stop” recycling centers the chain has installed in over 1,700 U.S. stores.

Now I don’t have to go to www.PlasticBagRecycling.org to find out where I can recycle film plastics, because I know I can recycle them at Lowe’s!

And, I would venture a guess that most race directors in this country have a Lowe’s nearby, so all that shrink wrap and other hard to recycle film plastic that is so ubiquitous can now be kept out of the landfill.

According to a story in today’s Waste & Recycling News, America’s major sports leagues (NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA and MLS) are encouraging their teams to begin using solar power. While this initiative isn’t about the greening of mass participant sporting events, it certainly is a step worth noting – and applauding.

The leagues recently distributed a solar development guide produced on their behalf by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) outlining the work necessary for each stadium to add on-site solar power generation to its energy mix.

Kudos to all the acronyms listed above – and apologies for assuming the reader knows what they all mean!

As a follow-up to the one question posed below about what to do with a ton of cups, I thought I would share a list of 20 questions event organizers should ask themselves as they begin to develop goals, objectives and plans for a greener running event. Before I do, however, I should point out that these questions were originally written for the second edition of Road Race Management’s Guide To Greener Running Events, which you can now order directly from RRM’s Web site.

This new booklet provides more than just an inventory of the green initiatives running events are implementing, and I hope it demystifies a lot of things event directors could and should consider doing. It also explores opportunities for “green” certification, presents a summary of hundreds of race directors’ thoughts and opinions about the environmental impact of their events and offers far more “how-to” guidance and narrative than the sold-out first edition.

The booklet is being sold for $55, including shipping and handling. The price for Road Race Management Members is only $50.

OK, here are 20 questions I think you should consider carefully as you begin to plan your road race:

Pre-race:

• What are your goals and objectives for going green?
• Who is going to manage the greening of your event?
• How much are specific green objectives going to cost, and how are you going to pay for them? 
• Who among your sponsors, vendors and civic partners will support your efforts? 
• What is the strategy for building awareness for your green initiatives? 
• What printing, if any, is absolutely necessary? Are there environmentally friendly printing options available to you for both paper and signage/banner needs? 
• How can you minimize shipping distances and impacts? 
• What alternatives to the ubiquitous goodie bag are available to you (consider both the bag itself and its contents)?
• What other traditional features of your event can be made more green (pasta feed, expo, t-shirts, race merchandise, etc.)? (more…)

Q: What to do with a ton of soggy paper cups?

A: Ask Eco-Logistics for help.

photo courtesy Chris Bovey

The Lilac Bloomsday Run uses as many as 500,000  cups each year. This year, Bloomsday asked us to help minimize the event’s solid waste. We focused on cup usage and found a local yard waste composter who would accept compostable cups. So, instead of being incinerated at the local waste-to-energy plant, Bloomsday sent 2,080 pounds of cups to a more useful afterlife as garden mulch.

It really is as easy as 1-2-3:

1. Find a local composter who is willing to work with you.

2. Make sure the cups and trash bags you use are compostable.

3. Work with your hauler to arrange for proper collection and delivery to the composter.

Q: What can Eco-Logistics do for you?

The recently concluded Summer National Senior Games in Palo Alto, California, displayed a broad and consistent commitment to sustainability. From Sunny, the 2009 Senior Games Mascot, to the solar-powered torch and cauldron (pictured below), organizers were serious about impressing upon us seniors the value of pursuing sustainable actions — and they did it in an innovative and lighthearted way.

You probably can’t read the sign above, but it talks about the departure from traditional fossil-fuel burning torches typically used at the Olympic Games and other major sporting events. For these Games, the torch was powered by the sun and lit with LED lights (sorry no picture, I didn’t arrive in time for the torch relay), while the cauldron is made up of some 800  tiny mirrors that reflect the sun’s energy. Solar panels built into the cauldron capture energy from the sun throughout the day, so the cauldron can glow at night. The torch and cauldron were created by the folks at IDEO.

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