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…)

In the preceding post, I mentioned that there’s a movement afoot to reduce the impact of running events, triathlons, bike races and the like. One of the driving forces behind this nascent movement is the Council for Responsible Sport.

Jeff Henderson and Jonathan Eng launched the Council in September 2007 with the thought that the broader world of sport could do with a little cleaning. To that end, they’ve developed a draft set of standards for green event certification which can be viewed here. The key word in the previous sentence is the word DRAFT. Jeff and Jonathan are sincere in wanting these standards to be objective, transparent and inclusive and, thus, are encouraging folks to comment on the draft standards using this form.

I’ve already let them know how I think the standards should be tweaked. Why don’t you take a few minutes to do so as well?