Dodging Diabetes Dodgeball Tournament Achieves ReSport Certification

As you can see in the photo above, the folks in Bethesda, Maryland take their dodgeball seriously. Dodging Diabetes organizers Anna Tiedeman Irwin and Elizabeth Kramer take the idea of staging a sustainable sports event seriously as well.

In a press release issued last week, Anna and Elizabeth had this to say about their pursuit of ReSport Certification:

“Dodging Diabetes has always, and will always be about knocking out diabetes for good,” said Dodging Diabetes Founder Anna Tiedeman Irwin. “But this year we realized we could be sustainable, too, while having a great time for a good cause. We think it is the right thing to do and we’re glad our community of dodgeballers agrees.”

“We hope that in working with the Council to obtain our certification we’ll inspire other nontraditional event organizers to pursue their own certifications,” said co-founder Elizabeth Kramer. Continue reading →

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From the Nissan Leaf pace car, to working with PriorLife to give outdated banners a second life as useful race merchandise, to recycling Heatsheets, the Marine Corps Marathon has truly delivered on the promise of sustainable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

Telling our story

Last weekend, we attended the annual Road Race Management Race Directors’ Meeting in Hollywood, Florida. From a marketing standpoint, it was our coming out party; after four years of working with events on a one-on-one basis, often just by e-mail and phone, we were finally able to get up close and personal with our peeps.

In addition to the social benefits of the RRM meeting, our objective was to launch our stakeholder review effort for v3.0 of our certification standards. Slated to go into effect on January 1, 2012, v3.0 standards will address the areas of Waste, Climate & Energy, Procurement & Sourcing, Community Impact, Healthy Lifestyle, Community Involvement, Inclusion, Innovation and Expos.

Public comment is welcome and open until Thanksgiving. If you’d like to participate, please drop our Managing Director, Catherine Humblet, an e-mail request for the stakeholder review packet of materials: Catherine [at] CouncilForResponsibleSport [dot] org. Continue reading →

What Makes WIN for KC Triathlon Special

If you were to receive the award pictured above, you would think you were part of something pretty special — and justifiable so! This “trophy,” featuring very creative reuse of materials, was given to Lettie Ebbs, who was the overall winner of this year’s WIN for KC Triathlon.

Of course, there’s a lot more that makes the WIN for KC Triathlon special, and green. It’s list of sustainability initiatives is a long one, necessitating the support of a number of green sponsors (pictured in an earlier post), and encouraging the involvement of young girls in its TriGirls training program, among other things. Continue reading →

Sustainable Green Printing

When the Nike Women’s Marathon achieved CRS Certification in 2008, event organizers earned an innovation credit for the creative reuse of a lot of their collateral materials, which were donated to SCRAPS — Scrounger’s Center for Reusable Art Parts — a source for the resourceful in San Francisco.

As much arts-related as it is environmental, the SCRAP ethos of creative reuse demonstrates that artistic creativity and learning can take place anywhere and everywhere—and with all manner of materials—and that “junk” has value for those who can see meaning beyond the discarding of things.

Other CRS Certified events, like the Marine Corps Marathon, have found other avenues for creative reuse of their large format printing (banners, directional signs, etc.). PriorLife, a subsidiary of Britten Banners, for example, recycles used banners into eco-friendly messenger bags, tote bags, laptop sleeves etc.

But the fact remains that much of the large format printing produced for sporting events continues to use PVC, unsustainably produced substrates and toxic, petroleum-based inks, which have a deleterious effect on the environment. Continue reading →