With climate change firmly on the agenda, it’s time for us – as runners – to start making positive changes. Here’s how to reduce your impact on the planet

Zero-waste

Words Claire Chamberlain

Unless you’ve been resolutely looking the other way, you will know that the climate crisis has been making almost daily headlines in recent months – and rightly so. From Sir David Attenborough’s stark warnings, to Sweden’s Greta Th unberg inspiring global school strikes, to Extinction Rebellion activists shutting down London landmarks, to the UK Parliament declaring a climate emergency, it’s hard to ignore the very real message that we have just 11 years left to limit climate catastrophe.

As an individual, it’s easy to feel like we can’t do much about it – but we can. Of course we need governments and big businesses to start implementing drastic change. But we – as consumers – can help to drive this change, and as runners we can collectively have a big impact. While many of us probably think of ourselves as pretty savvy when it comes to being ‘green’ (aft er all, we don’t need loads of fancy equipment in order to run, and we can do so straight from our own front doors, creating zero carbon emissions), it’s worth looking a little more closely. We can probably all make a few more positive changes to reduce our impact on the planet.

As runners, we can all make a few more positive changes to reduce our impact on the planet

The true cost of running kit

One of the biggest burdens that runners place on the environment is undoubtedly the impact of our clothing. Once discarded, our synthetic activewear can hang around inland ll for up to 200 years – and let’s face it, m any of us love treating ourselves to a nice new racerback top, or ensuring we own our favourite running tights in an array of colours, don’t we?

The harsh fact is that the fashion industry is the second largest polluter in the world a er the oil industry – and the e ect it’s having on the environm ent is pretty catastrophic. From water consum ption (one tonne of dyed fabric requires 200 tonnes of fresh water to produce), to water pollution, to the greenhouse gases produced during the production, m anufacturing and transportation processes, the fashion industry is bad for our planet – and that’s before we even get to the subject of waste.