CRS Launches Community of Practice

There’s nothing like a group of people gathering around the water “cooler” to share ideas. And, while the photo above doesn’t exactly depict a traditional water cooler, it clearly shows folks taking advantage of a unique innovation — the ING Hartford Marathon’s water bubbler, designed and built by United Technologies Corporation, the event’s Presenting Green Sponsor.

What better image to use than this one to accompany news of the launch of the Council for Responsible Sport’s Sports Events Community of Practice (COP)? After all, gathering like-minded people together to share innovative ideas and best practices is what the COP is all about.

Here’s what CRS Executive Director Marisa McGilliard had to say about the COP in a press release sent out today: 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!

Run, Recycle, Refuel

The ever-green organizers of the LIVESTRONG Austin Marathon recently held their first Trash Run, and while our primary focus is on events that apply for CRS Certification, this is a great green event concept — one definitely worthy of recognition and replication.

In order to give back to the Austin community that we love, the LIVESTRONG® Austin Marathon and Half Marathon® team is organizing groups for our “Run, Recycle, Refuel” events. The goal is to run along different sections of the Austin Marathon® and Austin Half Marathon® race route, pick up waste along the streets, and finish the run by rewarding the efforts of the volunteers with happy hours at a local neighborhood restaurant.

As you can see from the photos, the first trash run was a low-key, but highly organized affair. Race staffers and volunteers were thoroughly briefed on what would be compostable, what would be recyclable and what would be trash. Then, armed with gloves and the appropriate black, clear or bio-bag, runners hit the streets to green them up. Continue reading →