HOW TO BE A TRI ECO WARRIOR
LONG-HAUL FLIGHTS, CARBON BIKES, RUBBER WETSUITS… YOU MIGHT THINK BEING A TRIATHLETE WHILE STILL CARING FOR THE PLANET IS AN IMPOSSIBLE TASK. BUT THAT’S JUST NOT THE CASE, AS WITH A FEW SMALL CHANGES YOU CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE. READ ON TO FIND OUT HOW…
Is the sport of tri doing enough to support the environment? Tim Heming investigates
fter 31 years as the International Triathlon Union, the sport’s governing body rebranded as World Triathlon this autumn. Standing for SwimBike-Run, Mind-Body-Soul, EarthAir-Water, its new logo is represented in a palette of “Transition Blue, Lawn Green and Sky Blue” with “the planet in its soul”. Commenting on the rebrand, president Marisol Casado further stressed how “sustainability” was at triathlon’s core. Sounds promising, right?
Last year, the World Triathlon Series began in the Middle East, flew to North America, then the Far East, on to Europe, back to North America, again to Europe, North America once more, before returning to Europe for the Grand Final. It covered 34,707 miles – equivalent to oneand-a-half times around the planet.
Transportation sits just below industry for global greenhouse gas emissions, but as the saying goes: those in glass houses pedalling carbon-framed bikes, plotting their next world adventure, while reading a copy of this magazine (albeit delivered in paper not plastic, with a digital version available!) shouldn’t throw stones. The point is not to slam World Triathlon, but to point out just how nuanced and hypocritical the discourse around environmental impact of this sport can be.
However, given that there are probably more dinosaurs still roaming this Earth than climatechange deniers, just because booking long-haul to Hawaii makes us queasy, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and tackle the green issue. It’s time to investigate how race organisers, tri brands and you can turn from planet botherer to eco warrior…
RACE GREEN
There’s a buzz around being an eco brand. Marketers know that, so there’s also many buzzwords: ethical, sustainable, provenance. But while a t-shirt made from recycled plastic bottles sounds great, what if it’s been imported from the other side of the world and manufactured by underpaid staff in poor working conditions?
It needs an expert to cut through the noise, so step forward Kat Parkin, founder of White Rabbit Events, set up as a one-stop sustainable shop for event supplies. Parkin’s vocation is to drive change, from the manufacturing process through to delivery and disposal. The aim is to “leave nothing but footprints” – and certainly not carbon ones. “People are more environmentally aware, especially with David Attenborough on TV,” she says. “But it’s hard for them to see how a race they’re turning up to in a field in the countryside is going to have a negative impact on the environment.”
Parkin’s sustainable solutions initially focused on waste recycling before broadening to medals, t-shirts and biodegradable race numbers. East Grinstead Triathlon might be one of the oldest races in the UK, but wasn’t afraid to embrace new ideas. Under her guidance it introduced recyclable paper cartons for water, recycled paper goodie bags, sustainably-sourced marketing material using biodegradable inks and banners that could be updated each year rather than tossed away. The feedback from British Triathlon proved so positive, it encouraged her to turn to it full-time.
How can the industry embrace a greener future? “Organisers and stakeholders must advertise what they’re doing,” she says. “Events put out recycling stations, but people still contaminate the bins because they haven’t been taught where stuff goes. I’ve spoken to clients who are fearful of stepping away from what they know and think there’s greater cost involved. I’ve proved it can be cheaper than previous event sourcing.”
Travel leads the agenda and there’s no easy answer here. The effect of coronavirus has flipped the landscape for now – fewer flights on one hand; an understandable fear of public transport or carpooling on the other. With the kit required, triathletes are reluctant to ditch their vehicles, even in pandemic-free times. “People have got to want to get the train or bus with their bike,” Parkin says. “It’s not easy to get people’s heads around that.”
Sustainability also includes how staff and marshals arrive, and how the infrastructure’s set up. “Five hundred cars parking on a field damages the land, then whatever comes off those cars runs into a water source. It wouldn’t even cross people’s minds,” she says. The energy used to power the event village is also in focus, but smart solutions exist. A company called Join the Pipe, for example, will tap into water mains to provide a water stand as a refill point to avoid the need to ship H2O in bulk.
GIVING SOMETHING BACK
It’s when it comes to the consumables that triathletes can be more discerning. “You hear ‘no plastic, no plastic’, but often plastic is replaced with something that isn’t fully recyclable,” Parkin adds. “If you have a simple plastic bottle, it’s not infinitely recyclable like an aluminium can, but it
can still be recycled. I see companies bringing out packaging that claims to be paper-based but contains a lot of stuff that cannot be recycled.”
As she sips from a six-month-old 100% paper cup, Parkin suggests swapping medals for tree-planting that won’t just offset the local impact but get the wider community onside. Then, there are events such as the middle-distance VentouxMan in September that gave each finisher a print of the mountain by a local artist.
Some brands are already conscious of their impact on the environment. Swimrun leader ÖtillÖ has removed a chunk of carbon from its events by foregoing the bike leg(!), but jokes aside, it takes its responsibilities to preserve the planet seriously. For its Isles of Scilly event, for example, ÖtillÖ works closely with the Wildlife Trust to plan the route and not upset nesting birds or damage habitat. They also make a donation for every entered team.
Its corporate and social responsibility programme called #cleantheocean extends to beach clean-ups alongside races, where helpers don green tabards and beachcomb for waste. “A match made in heaven” is how Rikard Rinaldo, director at ÖtillÖ partners Mr Green, describes it. “We’ve done cleanups across Europe every time we’ve touched down with an ÖtillÖ race – and more people start showing up for the clean-up activities.”
Governing body British Triathlon is also an event organiser, running the AJ Bell World Triathlon in Leeds. Steps it has taken include an allencompassing event app rather than printouts, removing single-use plastic bottles from aid stations, and making sure cups are collected, recycled and that none end up in landfill.
Pre-pandemic it was a weekend that attracted around 70,000 spectators and partnerships with Leeds City Council ensured waste was collected, separated, recycled or composted and used on restoration projects such as nature trails and mountain-bike tracks. Non-recyclable waste was shredded and burned to generate electricity to be exported to the National Grid.
“Our sport relies on clean, open water and fresh, temperate air, and we need to do everything we can to ensure that our activities don’t impact the environments in which we train and compete,” chief executive Andy Salmon says. “We’ve taken a number of steps in the last few years to be more environmentally responsible, but I believe there’s a need for a shift in mindset and, as we plan for a post-pandemic future, we have a chance to place sustainability at the core of what we do.”
“Our sport relies on clean, open water and fresh, temperate air. We need to do everything we can to protect the environment we train and race in”
REPURPOSE OLD KIT
It’s not all down to race organisers and governance to drive initiatives. Craig Boggon from Gloucester (see last month’s Croyde Ocean Tri report), aka The Sustainable Triathlete on social media, posted a selfie with his litter picker at Outlaw X at Thoresby Hall. He’s urging triathletes to follow his lead.
Sustainability is also front of mind for pro Laura Siddall, who as a globetrotting triathlete knows lecturing others on their carbon footprint is going to come across, well, a bit Lewis Hamilton. “I know it can be seen as not an eco-friendly lifestyle and by setting up supporting projects, I can at least try and offset the balance,” she says.
A prime focus is Soles4Souls, a charity that ships new or ‘gently-loved’ shoes to children in need in 129 countries. At 51million pairs and counting, it estimates it’s kept more than 23 thousand tonnes of textiles from going to landfill. It also distributes new shoes and clothing donated by manufacturers.
“I have so much kit, still in great condition, and thought there must be loads of athletes in the same situation,” Siddall adds. “They also have social entrepreneurial schemes in places like Honduras and Haiti, where the women use the shoes to start their own businesses, repurpose them and sell them on. That’s how they support family and community.” Making it easy for triathletes to provide kit is critical, so Siddall approached
Challenge Family, who host races across the world, to see if athletes could drop-off used kit at registration. They picked it up as one of their sustainability initiatives for the next five years. Siddall has also inspired a Soles4Souls partnership with British triathlon store Neuff Red and the English Schools Athletics Association to develop a distribution network in the UK, which will fill the demand for single shoes among paratriathlon athletes, too. “I want to see these shoes go to kids who need a pair to run or walk to school. Ultimately, I’d love to follow the journey of the shoe and spend time with the women who are selling them as a business, or do some running races with the kids.”
Moving forward, she pledges to only use brands that have similar values to herself. “I do look at what the company does sustainably and for the community. What projects or charities do they work with? For example, I’ll never buy Nike due to the way they’ve acted in the past. Also, I recently found out that the owner of my favourite wine in the world gave a huge donation to Trump, so I just don’t think I can buy any more of that now.”
BUY GREEN
On to the brands and a British success story is wetsuit manufacturer Zone3 that’s won numerous 220 Triathlon awards, and understands the need to prove its green credentials. “We actively look to
incorporate recycled materials into our products and test their performance versus using raw materials,” founder James Lock says, noting the use of recycled tyres; limestone to replace petrochemicals; water-based glue to bond seams; and 45 plastic bottles recycled to line each wetsuit. “We’ve switched 80% of our packaging to recyclable or decomposable packaging and are looking to continue growing this.” Zone3 has also launched a wetsuit ex-demo programme where it takes back wetsuits to be cleaned, repaired and re-sold.
Others try to do their bit. The Ecolast swimwear range of Australian brand Zoggs is made from ocean debris including nylon fishing nets, old carpets and industrial waste. Finisterre shows the transparency of its supply line by detailing the gender mix of employees and audits of the factories it uses.
Based in Middlesbrough, performance sportswear brand Presca made its first cycling jersey from recycled plastic bottles in 2014, and only manufactures in the UK and Europe to cut down on haulage. By 2022 it’s pledged that all its garment designs will be “fully circular”, with a process in place to retrieve and recycle them at end of life.
Rather than using ethylene vinyl acetate, which can take up to 1,000 years to decompose, Brooks has leaned towards a more biodegradable running shoe by making the sole out of BioMoGo, a material expected to biodegrade over 20 years, and made the technology open source. Vivobarefoot is another brand that’s striving to create products with a closed-loop manufacturing processes. If you return your old shoes, it offers 20% off a new pair.
33Fuel makes nutrition products, including protein powders and shakes, and is also opting for the minimalist approach. “We don’t give away or sell branded shakers,” says co-founder and 220 contributor Warren Pole. “None of our powders come with plastic scoops. People own spoons and the world doesn’t need more plastic.”
For pedal power, it’s a decade since Schwinn first produced an 80% flax-fibre frame where, because the material was translucent, internal LED lights could be powered by the front hub dynamo. Racing bikes can be made partially from bamboo, which may have vibration-dampening properties to enhance comfort over longer distance.
Look for brands with Boo in the title such as Booomers [yes, three o’s is correct!] and Bamboocycles. More recently, Bjorn Bikes, a startup from Vancouver, Canada, has produced a model with a 60% recycled stainless-steel frame and 70% recycled aluminium forks. If you’re concerned about using chemicals in the upkeep, you can even look to soy-based lubricants on your bike chain.
So, there are plenty of options, but the hardest part to grapple with might be that while triathletes like shiny, new stuff, most of what we disregard is capable of lasting a lot, lot longer. So, the reality is that however much you want that eye-catching new aero frame, the most environmentally-friendly bike is the one you’re already sitting on.