The World Athletics Road Running Championships in San Diego aim to be a Carbon Neutral Event
San Diego is considered among the nation's top sustainable cities and most recently signed into law their Climate Action Plan with the social, economic, and environmental impacts driving their climate mitigation and sustainability policies, making it a perfect city to host what we hope will be the greenest event in road racing history.
In addition to San Diego's environmental and sustainability plan, we as event organizers are committed to adhere to World Athletics sustainability guidelines of "balancing the economic, social, and environmental impact of our activity to ensure we meet the needs of today’s generation without compromising the needs of future generations." We are committed to working with partners who make sustainability one of their core values. This includes working with diverse organizations and businesses for our sports infrastructure, suppliers, and services. We are asking all vendors and partners to join us in setting quantifiable and achievable sustainability goals for the events and and sharing them publicly. Our goal is to have all partners track and report their emissions, with the assistance of the LOC’s sustainability team, to make our goal of a carbon neutral event possible.
Specifically, we're working on creative ways rethink how races are put on to achieve our own sustainability goals with specific aspects of the event production, such as:
Expo and Post Race Party: We will prioritize locally sourced and produced giveaways made of recycled or reclaimed/organic materials while prohibiting swag and giveaway items made from styrofoam, non-recyclable single use plastics, and non-compostable materials. Our vendors must organize sorting of waste coming from their booths into recycling, composting, and TerraCycle bins.
Food and Beverage: Our vendors will prioritize locally sourced, seasonal and vegan options with caterers providing reusable or compostable plates, cutlery and napkins. All leftover or surplus food will be redirected to San Diego food recovery organizations for distribution to those in need.
Reduced Water Cup Consumption: We will revolutionize on course hydration services to reduce the number of single use cups by utilizing a combination of compostable and reusable vessels. Several options are available such as a reusable cup service like Hiccup Cup Rental, which delivers, collects, and sanitizes cups for races, or offer discounts to participants who use their own cup, such as HydraPak or Speedcup, a collapsible cup carried by the runner, and offer rapid filling stations along the course.
Participant Shirts: Apparel partners and vendors will be required to use 80% recycled materials in the apparel they are giving away. We'll also offer a shirt opt out with funds instead being used to plant trees through a local reforestation program.
Awards: Our awards will be unique as we aim to responsibly create a one of a kind memento from the 2025 World Championships which will be crafted locally from recycled or sustainable materials with minimal packaging. Our goal is to created a keepsake from a San Diego artist using repurposed materials such reclaimed wood, or recycled ocean plastics and other repurposed materials.
Bibs: We are pursuing alternatives to the traditional tyvek bibs, such as seed bibs which allow participants to bury their bibs post-race to help grow the wildflowers needed in the area for pollinators, or using Ultimate Tracking composed of recycled materials.
With the world watching this globally televised event we hope to lead the way and show how an inclusive and sustainable event can succeed.