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 →

Great Green News From London

There’s a lot of great green news coming out of London these days, specifically news about athletes and teams from Great Britain committing to a green build-up to next summer’s London Olympic Games.

Here’s a link to an interesting range of stories from the London Evening Standard’s This Is London Web page.

The photo on the left is a screen grab from a story of particular interest to CRS — the story about how Team ParalympicsGB “is set to create environmental and sporting history later this year by running the first training camp to be accredited as sustainable.”

The piece goes on to describe how “ParalympicsGB has been working with sustainability expert Toby Radcliffe, who is also a professional triathlete, to use the camp to develop a new accreditation scheme.”

According to Radcliffe, “we want to make the team and the camp as sustainable as possible. Our aim is to get the whole event accredited as sustainable, and we are working with the US Council for Responsible Sport to develop the process.”

There’s a lot of great detail about specifics of this eco training camp initiative on the This Is London site, along with a number of inspiring stories about Team Green Britain and athletes like Gold Medalist Victoria Pendleton and her personal commitment to become a sustainaibility champion.

Indeed, this is great green news from London that we’re very proud to be a part of. Thanks for getting us involved, Toby!

Participants served: 528,061 and counting

What’s all the cheering about?

Thanks to Ryan Lamppa, Running USA‘s Media Director, we’re honing in on a precise number of race participants served by CRS Certified races since the first pilot events in 2008. The number of runners served to date: 528,061.

That total, however, doesn’t yet include participant totals from the 11 triathlons that have become CRS Certified over the past three plus years — we’re working on collecting that number as well.

Once we’ve come up with a reliable number of total participants served by CRS Certified races, look for us to add a “participant ticker” to the right hand column of our home page. Think of it as our humble version of the National Debt Clock.

Stay tuned.

Looking at the Middle “R”

In the hierarchy of reduce, reuse and recycle, the opportunity to creatively reuse common race materials is often overlooked. But the folks at Cincinnati’s Flying Pig Marathon have long been known for their creative bent — from tying virtually every facet of their event into the pig theme to turning recycled plastic water bottles into fleece garments for the homeless, the Pig’s reputation for innovation is well deserved.

This year, Flying Pig organizers applied for and earned CRS Certification. The photo on the left depicts creative reuse at its best, and the result helped the Pig earn one innovation credit (actually, the Pig earned all three innovation credits).

So, what are we looking at in the photo? Pieces of old banners and ribbons from unused medals, which have been made into bags, purses and pillows to be sold via the Flying Pig e-store to benefit a local non-profit. Brilliant!

If you’ve got an example of creative reuse you would like to share with the CRS community, drop us a note in the comment box and we’ll follow-up to learn more about how you maximize the middle “R” at your event. You don’t have to have earned CRS Certification to participate — the more ideas about creative reuse the better!

CRS to Conduct Certification Standards Review

Thanks to a very generous $5000 grant from the Spirit Mountain Community Fund, the Council for Responsible Sport is now in a position to undertake a thorough and critical review of our current certification standards.

According to Catherine Humblet, the Council’s Managing Director: Our standards are the core of the organization. They guide where event directors focus their efforts as they strive to achieve social and environmental sustainability. As such, we want to keep them current and relevant, while ensuring that they remain robust and credible.

CRS Certification standards were originally developed in 2008, and were vetted through a series of eleven pilot events – running races and triathlons, big and small, across the United States. Current standards fall into six categories: waste, climate, materials & equipment, community & outreach, health promotion and innovation.

Any revisions to the current standards will be the result of a three-part multi-stakeholder review: Continue reading →