Blog Posts From Protect Your Playground Tagged With running

Newton Running Introduces an Eco-Shoebox

Jesse@Active — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:24:16 GMT

Newton Running, the makers of the innovative Gravity shoes , have introduced a new eco-friendly shoebox that is made of 100 percent recycled material and eliminates the need for tissue paper.

Environmental Leader has more on how Newton has joined other shoe companies in adopting more environmentally-friendly practices. They also report that Newton will include a pair of socks and a reusable shoe bag packed within the shoes to help them hold their form.

Photo courtesy of TheDieline.com

Brooks Sports Honored for Green Efforts

Active Giselle — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:00:44 GMT

Leading running company honored for environmental stewardship and eco-friendlier technology

BOTHELL, Wash. - (December 2, 2008) - Performance running

company Brooks Sports, Inc. has been honored with three Mother Nature-approved

industry awards. Footwear News, the leading trade publication for the

entire footwear industry, awarded Brooks its 2008 Green Award, while top

running publications Runner's World and Trail Runner gave public high-fives

to Brooks' eco-friendlier technology, BioMoGo. Runner's World presented

Brooks and BioMoGo with its 2008 International Green Award and Trail Runner

planted its first-ever Sprout Award on BioMoGo for "Best Green Innovation."

"At Brooks, we believe runners care about the

environment and we need to reduce our impact whenever possible,"

said Jim Weber, president and CEO of Brooks. "We haven't figured

it all out, but we're working hard at providing a more sustainable running

experience, and these awards confirm we're taking steps in the right direction."

Footwear News 2008 Green Award: The leading footwear

trade publication trumpets Brooks' efforts to be more sustainable, which

include eco-friendlier technologies like BioMoGo and HPR Green, waste-reducing

manufacturing practices like Compression Molded Preform (CMP), and shoe

boxes made from 100-percent recycled paperboard and non-toxic, soy-based

inks. Footwear News will present the Green Award to Brooks on Wednesday,

December 3, at the publication's 2008 Achievement Awards Breakfast. All

Achievement Award winners are also featured in the magazine's annual FN

Achievement Awards issue, on newsstands today.

Runner's World 2008 International Green Award: Presented

to a technology or company that best addresses the environmental impact

of running, the leading running magazine's International Green Award has

only been awarded twice in the past three years-both times to Brooks.

This time it was to honor Brooks' Trance™ 8, which launched in July

2008 with the inclusion of BioMoGo, the first-ever biodegradable running

shoe midsole. BioMoGo is designed to break down 50 times faster than traditional

Ethylene Vinyl Acetate™ (EVA) midsoles, saving 29.9 million pounds

of landfill waste over a 20-year period. Brooks' revolutionary midsole

stole the green spotlight at Runner's World's 2008 International Shoe

Summit in November.

Brooks previously took home the Runner's World Innovation

Award in 2006, for its pioneering use of HPR Green-an environmentally

friendly, non-petroleum based outsole rubber-in combination with its use

of CMP technology in its manufacturing process. This manufacturing process

reduces material waste by more than 50 percent, while increasing material

consistency. CMP also saves steps and time, reducing labor and energy

outputs.

Trail Runner 2008 Sprout Award: BioMoGo also grabbed

Trail Runner's Sprout Award for "Best Green Innovation" in its

December "Green" issue, available on newsstands now. New in

2008, the Sprout Awards recognize a race director, company, community

leader, and innovation that have made remarkable steps to achieve environmental

and social consciousness during the year. Trail Runner's editors feel

BioMoGo will have "a direct impact on reducing landfill waste"

and applaud Brooks' open-source stance with the technology.

For additional information about BioMoGo and other

environmental stewardship programs from Brooks, visit: www.brooksrunning.com/greenroom

Preliminary Findings Of Pilot Heatsheets Recycling Program

Jesse@Active — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:00:34 GMT

Tests at six fall marathons reinforce the need for well-planned, comprehensive waste recovery efforts at all running events.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 31, 2008, Petaluma, CA: AFMInc founder and CEO David Deigan announced today the preliminary results of his company's recently concluded pilot project for recycling Heatsheets-on-a-Roll™ finish line and aid-station heat-reflective plastic blankets.

Six marathons of various sizes, representing a wide range of U.S. recycling markets, were selected from AFMInc's Heatsheets customer base to participate in this pilot project, including: the Portland Marathon, October 5th in Portland, OR; the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon, October 5th in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, MN; the ING Hartford Marathon, October 11th in Hartford, CT; the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon, October 12th from Schenectady to Albany, NY; the IMT Des Moines Marathon, October 19th in Des Moines, IA; and the Nike Women's Marathon, October 19th in San Francisco, CA.

"Our original intent was just to develop guidelines for running events for recycling their film plastic waste," said Deigan. "But, it quickly became apparent that no single recycling effort should be undertaken without taking into account an event's overall waste recovery objectives, opportunities and plans.

One of the key lessons we learned is that recycling at events, as a whole, requires a behavioral change in participants, which is one of the challenges. As a result, rather than restricting our post-pilot recommendations and informational materials to film plastic recycling, we'll be developing a comprehensive waste management primer for our clients and other interested race directors. Our timeframe for making that available, free of charge from our Web site, remains the first of the year."

"Even though our recovery rates ranged from 4% to 58%, I'd have to call our effort successful across the board," Deigan added. "The lessons we learned, particularly from the races where we did not collect a significant quantity of Heatsheets, will allow us to move forward to the next step in the process--developing general guidelines for races that will enable them to recycle our product and other recyclable race materials more effectively."

Two events, the ING Hartford Marathon and the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon, recovered 58% and 46% of the Heatsheets distributed at their finish lines, respectively. The ING Hartford is widely recognized as one of the "greenest" road races in America. The Heatsheets recovery effort at the Medtronic Twin Cities was spearheaded by Jon Stein of Consolidated Container Company, a man focused on finding markets for the category 3 through 6 recyclable plastics that traditional waste management companies struggle to segregate and reprocess. Given the personal commitment of Jon Stein and Beth Shluger, the ING Hartford Race Director, the successful recovery of Heatsheets at these two events was to be expected.

What wasn't anticipated was the wide range of variables that impacted recovery efforts at the other four pilot events: weather, location of waste and recycling bins within the post-finish line area, signage and communication with volunteers, runners and haulers.

The "keepsake factor" of some of the printed Heatsheets also appeared to impact the runners' willingness to recycle the product. In the case of the Nike Women's Marathon, for example, the vast majority of runners were seen leaving the Finish Village proudly wearing their Heatsheets, on a cool, overcast day. While the recovery rate of only 4% in San Francisco may seem trivial, the attempt to recover every unwanted Heatsheet was well worth the effort--practically all of the Heatsheets discarded at the event were recycled.

AFMInc wishes to thank all six events that took part in the pilot project. Each of these events is playing a vital role in the nascent movement to make U.S. running events, large and small, more environmentally friendly.

Over the next couple of months, AFMInc and Eco-Logistics will thoroughly review what was learned at each of the six pilot events, before publishing detailed recycling protocols to address the opportunities and challenges running events of all sizes will face as they develop programs for recycling film plastics. In addition Deigan and Keith Peters, of Eco-Logistics, will be speaking at gatherings of race directors in Washington D.C., New York City and Hollywood, Florida this fall.

Recycling protocols should be available by the end of the year on www.heatsheets.com. There will be no charge for the PDF format document, and events will not need to be a customer of AFM to download the information. Upcoming events that are interested in implementing their own Heatsheets recycling program should contact David Deigan.

For more information about the Heatsheets recycling pilot project, contact Keith Peters at (307) 690.6803, or Keith@Eco-Logistics.biz. David Deigan can be reached at (415) 254.8240 or DDeigan@afminc.com.

My Old Running Shoes Now Have a Home

activetina — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:10:22 GMT

I'm due for a new pair of running shoes. Although my current shoes look decent (a bit dusty perhaps), they have exceeded their mileage and I'm starting to train for an upcoming race. But unlike previous pairs, this time I'm committed to helping the environment and helping others by donating my running shoes.

There are many organizations that will gladly take your running shoes and give them to someone in need. If you're like me, you may think to yourself, "Yuk, who would want my old running shoes." You'd be surprised. We take footwear for granted, but the reality is there are many people who desperately need a quality pair of shoes to protect their feet from scrapes and cuts, as well as contaminants that could lead to serious healthcare issues. Think about the following examples:

Natural disasters where someone loses their home and belongings without warning
Homeless people who walk the streets 365 days a year
People who must sort through landfills to find the means to survive and have no protection for their feet
Children in orphanages around the world who have never had a pair of shoes

A few organizations that take used running shoes include Soles4Souls, Shoe4Africa, One World Running, The Shoe Bank, Heart & Sole and Sole Responsibility.

If you are apprehensive about donating shoes for someone else to wear, you have a couple other great options. Nike has a shoe recycling program whereby they grind up your shoes and use the materials to produce playgrounds, basketball courts, tracks and more. They have more than 300 drop off points around the county.

Additionally, I just came across a great promotion from Epinions.com that lasts through the rest of the year and only takes three minutes of your time. For every shoe review on their site, Epinions will donate $5 to Soles4Souls to buy shoes for those in need. It doesn't get much easier than that, and it's not just limited to running shoes.

So rather than tossing your old running shoes in the trash, consider making a positive impact in the world by donating them!