As part of our new undertaking with
Untamed Adventure, we really wanted to make environmental responsibility a core tenet of our events. It's a perfect fit, honestly, since adventure races are more fun when done through green wilderness instead of spoiled wastelands.
Just a quick aside here regarding spoiled wastelands: we did a race a few years ago in Asheville, NC that featured paddling on the French Broad river. The French Broad has it's pretty moments, but it also has the most rusted-out cars per mile of riverbank anywhere. Still a lot of fun and a great race, but sad to see a beautiful river become a trash can. I would've loved a conservation project in that race where each team moved vehicle parts away from the river and into a more appropriate place -- just make sure your tetanus shot is current!
We want to position Untamed Adventure at the forefront of green adventure racing and we are starting with several specific initiatives for the
Untamed Virginia Adventure Race:
- -The race will be entirely carbon neutral, meaning we're working with AtmosClear to secure 52 tons of CO2 equivalent emission reductions. This means all the driving during course design and testing, all the racer travel, all the support crew transportation, will be balanced with verified emission trades (AtmosClear brokers the deal on our behalf, and there are lots of specifics here that I'll save for another post)
- -We will have paperless waivers and medical forms. Our legal counsel confirms we can do this, so we've built an online liability waiver and medical form that will eliminate all the paper from the race check-in (assuming all the racers log in and do their part in advance -- but we've got an incentive that will make that happen). This will not just be a green initiative, but will make life easier for everyone!
- -Teams will complete a conservation project during the race . . . and it isn't just trash pick-up -- although picking up trash is a good thing. This is a project that will leave our race course better than when we found it, and deliver a specific, lasting, and tangible benefit to part of our Untamed VA course. Everyone will feel good about this, especially once the manual labour is done!
- -No plastic goodie bags at race check-in. Instead, we've got reusable canvas bags from a supermarket. One big bag per team.
- -We're working with ARFE, Adventure Racers For the Environment, regarding Leave No Trace ethics and identifying a long-term environmental sustainability role within our organization.
- -We make a considerable donation from our race budget to community green groups (such as "Friends of" organizations and conservation associations).
These are measures, small and large, that we hope become more prevalent in adventure racing and ensure that we are walking the
green walk, not just talking the
green talk. We're always looking for more oppportunities to green up our races, like how we'll eliminate support crews in 2008 to really ratchet down our total race footprint. Suggestions are always welcome and the world of adventure racing will be better for it!