We care about the impact we have on the environment and the Lake District - after all, it's where we live and it's our playground too. We want to avoid 'greenwashing' just to pay lip service to environmental causes so we're making sure that everything we do is fully thought through to ensure the solution achieves the desired benefits.
This may mean initiatives take a bit longer to implement as we take an incremental approach to them, but it should result in a greater impact. For example, planting trees for the sake of it can lead to minimal gains in biodiversity and sometimes only offer a short-term solution if the trees are felled at a young age, so we carefully researched options before deciding how best to offer our BiodiversiTee initiative.
Our BiodiversiTee initiative (more information below) will mean that we will be ordering fewer t-shirts but inevitably we will have some left over at the end of the events. These t-shirts are put to good use by CRCL, a charity based in west Cumbria which promotes cultural awareness by arranging exchange trips for children from Tanzania. When trips to Africa take place, the t-shirts are shipped across with the visitors to be used as team kits for the children playing sport. We also send surplus tees to the Continuum Project where they are given to worthy causes.
Nobody likes to see litter on the trails and there's rarely any left by our runners. Despite that, we send a Sweeper around at the back of the course to collect race signage, check gates have been shut and to check for any stray items of rubbish.
We are delighted to be able to start giving our runners the option of forgoing an event t-shirt in exchange for a donation to biodiversity initiatives.. We've joined up with Cumbria Wildlife Trust and other carefully selected partners and all proceeds will go towards projects in and around the Lake District to increase biodiversity, mitigate flooding and increase awareness of issues. We have funded the Ullswater Catchment Management CIC, enabling them to plant trees and shrubs in the Grisedale Valley alongside our Helvellyn Trails so it means you will be able to see the benefits of your contribution first-hand; Langdale Primary School have developed their eco-garden; mature trees have been replaced in Fitz Park (home of Lakeland Trails in Keswick) and more projects are in the pipeline.
We do not publish paper copies of Start Lists or Results in our marquee anymore. Instead, we email competitors a couple of days before the event so they know their race number and start time and display live information on our website.
We phased out single-use plastic cups and are now only have compostable PLA ones, made from corn starch. Whilst they use significantly less energy to produce and aren't oil-based, they still have a CO2 footprint so runners must provide their own cup / pouch for water at waterstations our in the event village.
We recycle all of the cardboard generated by our events and invest in high-quality products which so they last longer to reduce their impact. We made a simple change to the signs we use to inform the general public about our events so they can be re-used.
All race route and event signage is re-used at following events. Marshal information is laminated so that it can be re-used in future years too.
27th January 2023
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