Newport Sustainability Report

While our environmental goals last all year long, the Newport race coincides with Earth month so sustainability is at the forefront of ours (and most) people’s minds. As this is our first race of the season, and our largest, it gives us the opportunity to focus on the various initiatives we implemented in our planning. We measure our goals vs execution while defining how to continue to make incremental improvements in getting to a Zero-Waste event. This year, we were able to step up some major changes and initiatives, thanks to our partners at 11th Hour Racing, while also dialing in our logistics with past partners, Epic Renewal and Eastern RI Conservation District.

Changes for this year – We contracted Hiccup Earth, which allowed us to replace our traditional on-course cups with reusable silicone cups. This kept 50,000 (!!!!) race cups out of the landfill.

Secondly, Boxed Water came on board as a race partner, so we replaced our finish line single-use water bottles with Boxed Water, a more sustainable option.

Some important stats:

From Epic Renewal – We diverted 535 lbs of organics from landfills, offsetting 383 net pounds of CO2 emissions. Our landfill waste was HALF of what it was last year!

From Eastern RI Conservation District – We had 30 ploggers out on course in Newport and Middletown, and collected almost 250 lbs of waste, from our Plogging lead – “Certainly more pre-race trash than ever found.”

From our Trees Not Tees partnership, 393 participants opted out of a race shirt, allowing us to not only eliminate the environmental costs of manufacturing and shipping this quantity of race shirts, but this also means we donate to our forestry partner to plant trees for our participants in place of purchasing a race shirt.

From our Hydrapak Speedcup initiative, 264 SpeedCups were purchased, which reduced our cup usage on course and allowed us to donate additional funds to Save The Bay as a result of this initiative.

Our opportunities:

Gel packets and space blankets. We know these are necessary for the safety and well-being of our participants, but they are the bane of our sustainability goals. They are discarded, tossed, taken by wind, even by the most environmentally conscious runner.

We will continue to measure ourselves against the Council for Responsible Sport, seeking best practices and solutions from our peers to reduce our impact, recycle more product and reuse what we can from one event to another. We are always open to feedback, ideas and suggestions as to how to improve. Please don’t hesitate to shoot us an email to provide your thoughts and ideas as to how we can improve. Thank you to all of our volunteers, participants and vendors in these efforts – we know we can’t do it without you.