There’s a lot of signage to look at in this photo — all of it good.

But I’ll focus my comments on the blue recycling banner in the center of the photo. It’s one of 30 now in circulation, thanks to a joint investment by the Lilac Bloomsday Association, the Atlanta Track Club and Eco-Logistics.

The idea of our shared banner program is to meet each party’s needs without any one of us having to purchase an excessive inventory of banners. On an ongoing basis, Eco-Logistics needs as many as 10 banners to service the smaller events we work with, while Bloomsday and Peachtree each require as many as 20 banners on race day — so we split the order, and we share. In addition to race day use at Bloomsday and Peachtree, the banners in Spokane and Atlanta are available for use by other Spokane area special events and other races put on by the Atlanta Track Club, respectively.

The idea for the shared banner program came from a similar program for sharing Clearstream recycling containers (the wire frame with clear bag and blue top to the right in the photo) in Spokane. Last year, Bloomsday, Hoopfest and the CIty of Spokane invested in a couple hundred Clearstream recycling containers, which are made available to special events throughout the Spokane area.

If this post inspires you to purchase recycling station banners for your event, I’d like to encourage you to consider setting up a similar sharing program to ours — there’s no point in having stuff sit in a warehouse 364 days a year!

FYI, here’s a list of our objectives for this program:

One of our clients, the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run, is taking a multi-faceted approach to reducing its many transportation impacts. Even though their circumstances are unique, I think this a good case study in creating problem solving.

To begin with, the event takes place in the heart of Washington DC, with the start/finish area near the Washington Monument — in the midst of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, no less. Needless to say, parking is an issue. So, long before their “carbon footprint” became a topic of conversation, race organizers forged a relationship with Metro to promote subway ridership to and from the race.

With a 7:30 am race start, however, there was a big challenge to overcome: Metro stations typically open at 7 am on Sunday mornings. Undaunted, race organizers struck a deal with Metro to have the stations open at 5 am on race day, and the program has taken off. Last year 13,900 runners, spectators and volunteers rode Metro to the event!

Of course, Metro isn’t a convenient option for everyone, so race organizers offer the ability to purchase carbon offsets from NativeEnergy as part of the online race registration process. For $3.60, the average price of a Metro round-trip fare, runners could contribute to the Northeast Farms Separation project, which removes volatile solids from dairy farm manure, thus preventing anaerobic decomposition that would normally produce methane. This year 1177 runners contributed a total of $4237.20 to the cause, which will offset 303 short tons of carbon emissions. (As a point of reference, last year 1090 race participants purchased NativeEnergy co2 offsets that helped build the Greensburg Wind Farm in Greensburg, Kansas, which prevented over 260 short tons of carbon emissions.)

And, for those lucky enough to be able to ride their bikes to the race, Cherry Blossom organizers have worked with the National Park Service to provide a bike parking lot at 14th and Independence Avenue SW.

Finally, race organizers are working with EnviroRide to source buses that use alternative fuel for elite athlete transportation to/from the race as well as for picking up stragglers at the end of the race. In addition, battery-powered golf carts will be used throughout the start/finish area to haul trash, recycling and compostables to a central collection area.

Lots of challenges, lots of good choices made to reduce Cherry Blossom’s various transportation impacts. Kudos to the race organizers!

By the way, each of the above mentioned tactics contribute to what is hoped to be a successful application for certification from the Council for Responsible Sport — the only credible, third-party verified certification system for sports events. Stay tuned for more news about Cherry Blossom’s application after the race this weekend — once the documentation that backs up their many initiatives becomes available.

A couple of posts ago, I introduced the concept of the LOTOJA Green Team and the challenge most ultra-distance sporting events face — what to do about the tremendous CO2 emissions associated with transporting participants and their support crews from point A to B and back again.

Through the registration process, LOTOJA participants were given the chance to purchase a range of carbon offsets for the event — from a Prius ($1.50) to a Hummer ($3.50).

Here’s the good news: 340 riders contributed generously to the Green Team initiative, enabling us to offset about 115 metric tonnes of CO2, or about 1/2 of the CO2 emissions associated with participant vehicles on race weekend. These contributions will directly support the development of three Certified Emission Reduction (CER) projects in Utah and Idaho:  the Granger South Jordan Landfill Gas Destruction Project in West Jordan City; and Intrepid Technology Resources’ Anaerobic Digesters at the Westpoint Dairy in Wendell and at the Whitesides Dairy Farm in Rupert. CERs will be purchased from EcoSecurities, a global leader in the business of sourcing, developing and trading emission reduction credits.

Great news!

After first blogging about the carbon footprint of LOTOJA back in September 2007, I’ve finally been able to do something about it. Earlier this year, I approached Brent Chambers, the race director, and convinced him to offer participants the chance to offset their race weekend carbon emissions. Working with Steve Gutmann in EcoSecurities‘ office in Portland, Oregon, we’ve put together an offering of offset options that cover the full range of LOTOJA support vehicles, from a Prius ($1.50) to a Hummer ($3.50)

As you can see from the screen shot above, LOTOJA participants are being encouraged to confront an issue that is fundamental to this event–and fundamental to long distance running relays as well. Driving an average of 500 miles, some 1,500 vehicles rack up over 750,000 total miles over the course of LOTOJA weekend. Assuming the average vehicle gets 20 miles per gallon, with emissions of 19.56 pounds of CO2 per gallon, the carbon footprint of LOTOJA participant travel is 733,500 pounds, or 332 metric tonnes of CO2! That’s equivalent to the energy use of 30 single-family homes for one year.

By joining LOTOJA’s Green Team, race participants will be directly supporting the development of three Verified Emission Reduction projects in Utah and Idaho:  the Granger South Jordan Landfill Gas Destruction Project in West Jordan City; and Intrepid Technology Resources’ Anaerobic Digesters at the Westpoint Dairy in Wendell and at the Whitesides Dairy Farm in Rupert.   The offsets will be independently verified to the California Climate Action Registry (CCAR) protocols.

Green Team members will receive a LOTOJA Green Team decal, along with special vehicle signage and a wristband to wear proudly on race day.

The folks at Conley Sports–our clients in Austin, Texas–are truly committed to doing their best to stage a sustainable event.

Recognized by Runner’s World Magazine as the Greenest Race in North America in 2008, the Austin Marathon and Half Marathon issued a press release today detailing efforts to raise the bar and make the 2009 event even more environmentally friendly.

It all starts with a dedicated Green Team and a focus on eliminating unnecessary waste and pollution at every turn:

Major reductions will come from less plastic waste at water stops, fewer supply vehicles, eliminating paper inserts in the runners’ goodie bags, and distributing only one plastic bag to runners throughout race weekend (with instructions for ways to reuse it after the race).

A key component of Austin’s efforts this year goes beyond just being green: race organizers are seeking third-party certification of their efforts from the Council for Responsible Sport. ReSport Certification is making its public debut this year, after conducting a pilot program in 2008. Participation from events like the Austin Marathon will surely help raise this budding non-profit’s profile in the running world.

Who knows, the next time Runner’s World ranks green races, maybe they’ll base those rankings on points earned in the ReSport Certification process? Hope so.

For a full accounting of Austin’s green initiatives, please download the green-team-release.pdf.

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:

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If you visited this Web site over the summer and wondered what Lee and I were up to, thanks for coming back. Even though you might have thought we lost the plot, we’ve been quite busy. It’s just that our work with clients wasn’t far enough along to shout about–most of it still isn’t.

We are, however, pleased to be able to announce our involvement in AFMInc’s pilot project for recycling Heatsheets. Here’s a press release that went out today:

AFMInc Launches Pilot Heatsheets® Recycling Program

Tests at six fall marathons will contribute to the development of a recycling protocol for low density polyethylene at road races across the U.S.

September 10, 2008, Petaluma, CA: AFMInc President and Chief Operating Officer, Stephanie Deigan, announced today a recycling pilot project she described as “well underway.” The intent of the project is to develop and provide extensive guidelines to running events of all sizes for the recycling of their plastic waste, including AFM’s highly visible Heatsheets-on-a-Roll™ finish line and aid-station heat-reflective plastic blankets.

Six marathons of various sizes, representing a wide range of U.S. recycling markets, were selected from AFMInc’s Heatsheets customer base to participate in this fall’s pilot project, including: the Portland Marathon, October 5th in Portland, OR; the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon, October 5th in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, MN; the ING Hartford Marathon, October 11th in Hartford, CT; the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon, October 12th from Schenectady to Albany, NY; the IMT Des Moines Marathon, October 19th in Des Moines, IA; and the Nike Women’s marathon, October 19th in San Francisco, CA.

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