Sustainability

There are three elements to sustainability that we focus on as a business. Carbon Footprint, reduction of waste and removal of plastic usage/ generation.

Centurion Running is formed principally of three elements. The Events, our Store and our Coaching.

Our Coaching is conducted entirely remotely and as such the direct carbon footprint of that area of the business is extremely small. The business is 100% electronic with no plastic, paper or waste generation. 

Our store is both in-person and online. We focus on using recycled packaging, selecting sustainable or recycled materials wherever possible from the brands we work with and pushing them to do better in their product creation and design. Look out for this logo on our online store, which denotes products that are made using recycled materials or from sustainable resources. You can find them quickly by searching the tag 'Sustainable' or by clicking here.

The biggest single difference we can make as an organisation, to reduce the carbon footprint of our events. The majority of this comes from the travel of runners to and from our events. Our mission from 2023 onwards is to look to offer solutions to reducing emmissions from that transport. Lift sharing solutions, increased use of public transport and provision of communal travel options (coaches and buses) will become more prevalent and accessible as we move forward. These things take time to implement and require good communcation from us to our runners to make work. Our goal is to continue to reduce emissions with every event that passes.

With reference to waste and material use. Our commitment since the outset has been to try to use less, reduce waste and recycle/ upcycle as much of waste generated, that we can. Over the years we have worked to refine practices to eliminate or reduce waste without affecting runners safety or enjoyment of events. These are scratching the surface of what we can do and we will continue to do all we can to eliminate waste. Key dates for us have been:

2016: Removal of dates from finisher buckles - eliminating waste
2017: Adding re-usable cup to mandatory kit for all events and eliminating use of single use plastic cups
2017: Removal of dates from medals and re-stitching of new dated ribbons to medals in their place - eliminating waste
2019: Removal of dates from finisher tees - eliminating waste
2020: Providing runners the choice not to take awards as they register for event to reduce production levels
2021: Elimination of any waste from course marking - Introduction of upcycled Tyvek Marker Ribbons and re-usable cable ties, moving away from plastic barrier tape.

The biggest change from the above for us came at the end of 2016 when we made a cup part of mandatory gear for all events, and scrapped plastic cups at our aid stations. This reduced waste at our events down from 1800 litres on average, to 800 litres, of which 400 litres is recycled cardboard and plastic.

At the present time, waste we generate is dealt with as follows:

- 100% of cardboard from our farm office, store and from events, is recycled.

- 100% of plastic waste generated through food packaging and plastic bottles at check points is recycled.

- 100% of paper generated via our store and in our farm offices is shredded and composted.