ReSport Certification Part Of Chicago Park District’s Newly Updated Green Event Guidelines For 2012 Permit Applicants

Chicago Park District officials recently announced a few updates to their Green Event Guidelines for 2012. While park permit applicants will not be required to become Certified Green Events, they are encouraged to do so. And, for large athletic events seeking Certified Green Event recognition from the Chicago Park District, third-party certification from the nonprofit Council for Responsible Sport (CRS) will be required.

I applaud the Chicago Park District for continuing to evolve their Certified Green Event program. We are honored to have the Council’s ReSport Certification standards included in the Park District’s Green Event Guidelines for 2012. The Bank of America Chicago Marathon and Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle have both achieved ReSport Certification in recent years, and I look forward to other large athletic events in Chicago joining the Marathon and Shamrock Shuffle on the growing list of sporting events pursuing green event certification.

The significance of the step the Chicago Park District has taken should not be underestimated. To my knowledge, Chicago is the first municipality in the United States to incorporate a third-party certification standard into its event permitting process. Of course, I’m hopeful that other municipalities will follow Chicago’s lead. — Keith Peters, CRS Executive Director

A complete copy of the press release can be downloaded here.

ParalympicsGB Training Camp Achieves Silver ReSport Certification

: Tom Aggar, gold medal winner in men’s single scull rowing at the Beijing Paralympics, demos the energy producing stationary hand cycle

The Council for Responsible Sport (CRS) recently announced that the British Paralympic Association have successfully completed their application for Silver ReSport Certification of the ParalympicsGB August 2011 training camp at the University of Bath. This certification of a multi-day, residential event is a first for the Council; all previous ReSport Certified events have been one-day races like the Gold Certified EDF Energy Birmingham Half Marathon in the UK and the Big Sur Half Marathon in the U.S.

Catherine Humblet, Managing Director of the Council and CRS evaluator for the training camp had this to say: All the hard work this team has done will be of tremendous benefit to other groups who are committed to bringing sustainability to multi-day sporting events. The innovative approach to athlete and visitor education was particularly impressive, with the Low Carbon Arcade being my favorite – watching camp visitors use a hand-powered stationary bicycle, knowing they were experiencing something about what it takes to compete as a Paralympian while learning about generating power for electricity was a great lesson in connecting the dots.

A PDF file of the complete press release is available here.

Council for Responsible Sport Introduces ReSport Certification Standards 3.0

The Council for Responsible Sport (CRS) today released version 3.0 of its ReSport Certification standards for sports events (PDF download here). The new standards will be applied to this upcoming weekend’s U.S. Men’s and Women’s Olympic Trials Marathon, 40^th Annual Chevron Houston Marathon, Aramco Houston Half Marathon, El Paso Corporation 5K and ABB Team Challenge; all are organized and produced by the Houston Marathon Committee.

Work on v3.0 began in June 2011, with an outside working group of 18 sustainability experts spending the summer looking for ways to update existing standards and add new standards that would make CRS Certification more comprehensive. The draft standards were then circulated for stakeholder review this past fall. The working group convened one last time in Mid-December to fine-tune the 76-page CRS Certification Manual that was released today.

CRS Managing Director Catherine Humblet, who led the project from start to finish, said: Our intent in up-dating the standard was to keep the best aspects of the old standard and add to it all of the best practices that we’ve seen in the field over the last four years. This new version is not harder than the old version but it is more robust, up-to-date and complete.

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Marine Corps Marathon Earns Silver Certification, Again

In today’s press release announcing the Marine Corps Marathon’s achievement of Silver CRS Certification, the headline read: Sustainable innovations abound at the 2011 Marine Corps Marathon.

From the Nissan Leaf pace car, to working with PriorLife to give outdated banners a second life as useful race merchandise, to recycling Heatsheets, the Marine Corps Marathon has truly delivered on the promise of sustainable innovation.

Another innovation at this year’s event was the recyclable box of FitFul™ food supplied to every finisher (pictured above). Full of all natural, healthy snacks including Organic Multi Seed Crackers, Organic Chocolate, Wild Garden Hummus and a Dole Fruit Cup, The FitFul box delivered healthful post-race nutrition in a recyclable box. Continue reading →

Big Sur Half Marathon Achieves Gold, Again

Following up on their successful application for Gold Certification from the Council for Responsible Sport (CRS) in November 2009, organizers of the Big Sur Half Marathon applied for re-certification from the Council this year. Out of a possible 41 sustainability credits, this year’s Big Sur Half Marathon applied for and received 36 certification credits – three more than were earned in 2009. It should also be noted that the Big Sur Half Marathon will be the only event to earn Gold Certification in 2011.

“Organizers of the Big Sur Half Marathon continue to raise the bar when it comes to producing a sustainable sporting event,” said Keith Peters, Executive Director of the Council for Responsible Sport. “Their waste diversion of 96% is unprecedented in any major sporting event, and they offered new green initiatives such as pedal-power to provide electricity, and community support through donations of unused food, discarded clothing and shoes to the local homeless shelter.” Continue reading →