In 2024, we decided to significantly reduce our entry fees and make event t-shirts an optional extra. Events produce a huge number of 'free' t-shirts for competitors, with regular runners quickly amassing more t-shirts than are ever going to be worn.

This consumes a huge amount of resources, both from the production of the products, global & domestic shipping and tonnes of plastic waste. Even with our BiodiversiTee initiative, we still ordered over 7500 event t-shirts in 2023 alone.

In 2024, we ordered 8500 fewer oil-based t-shirts compared to 2019!

Many event t-shirts are littered with sponsor logos, making them unappealing, but ours are professionally designed in Cumbria to make sure our runners want to wear them again and again.  We also removed the year from the tees so that any spares can be carried forward to future years.

Our BiodiversiTee initiative was launched in 2021 and were delighted to be able to give our runners the option of forgoing an event t-shirt in exchange for a donation to biodiversity initiatives. We also offer runners who complete 5 'BiodiversiTee' races a free entry to a future event.

We joined up with Cumbria Wildlife Trust and other carefully selected partners with all proceeds going towards projects in and around the Lake District to increase biodiversity, mitigate flooding and increase awareness of issues. As of July 2024, we had donated over £8000 to CWT.

Other schemes we have funded include:

• Ullswater Catchment Management CIC, enabling them to plant trees and shrubs in the Grisedale Valley alongside our Helvellyn Trails
• Langdale Primary School, who have developed their eco-garden
• The planting of mature trees in Fitz Park, home of Lakeland Trails in Keswick to replace storm-damaged ones
• Coniston Parish Council have planted 4-season gardens
• Ambleside Primary School will be planting some hedgerows around their woodland area
• St Martin & St Mary Primary Schol in Windermere have created an allotment area

Despite our best efforts to reduce the number of t-shirts we order, invariably, there are some left over.

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. Some tees also go out to Uganda with one of our runners, Martin Tilbury, to support his charity, The Bumba Foundation which provides education opportunities there.

We also send surplus tees to the Firefighters Charity which helps rehabilitate injured service people.

We have invested in chip programming machines so that we only need to produce timing chips for competitors who turn up. This also allows unused race numbers to be used for our Kids' Fun Trails.

We do not publish paper copies of Start Lists or Results in our marquee. Instead, details are available online (including live results) and we email competitors a couple of days before the event so they know their race number.

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.

We have added public transport information to all of our event pages. Everyone who arrives at one of our events by public transport or bike is entered into a draw to win a free place in a future event. Bike racks are available at our events for those people who want to cycle to them.

Our Race Director drives an EV which will save around 3.25 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.

We are reviewing the location of our stores with a view to locating them more centrally to reduce van mileage transporting everything to our events.

Our photographer travels by bike and on public transport.

Unlike many other events taking part in the Lake District, we are based in Cumbria and over 90% of our expenditure straight into the Cumbrian economy. Not only is that good for local businesses but it also reduces the miles driven to the events for things like Portable toilets (which come from adjacent to the event ground in Hawkshead) and Marquees and our own equipment.

For 2024, we changed our t-shirt supplier to one based just outside Coniston which employs 20 local people. It's just one example of how we are making small changes...but they all add up!

We phased out single-use plastic cups in 2018 and now only have compostable Bagasse, made from sugar cane and 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 and are only compostable in industrial machiens so runners must provide their own cup / pouch for water at waterstations and in the event village.