Whether it’s the pressure to shave seconds off your PB with the latest kit, travelling to events or the endless tide of race merch, what should be one of the greenest sports around can easily run up a hefty CO2 toll. Enter The Green Runners, a grassroots initiative set up by athletes on a mission to enjoy the sport without the footprint
Running. On the surface, it should be one of the most sustainable sports going. Pull on a pair of shorts, lace up your kicks, and you’re ready to smash out your first couch to 5k. The reality, however, often tells a different story.
From chasing the latest gear to jetting off to far-flung races, the modern running scene isn’t always as green as it looks. Finishers’ medals, race day merch and the flood of single-use plastic littering big events all take their toll.
Now, a growing number of track stars, marathoners and cross-country die-hards are mobilising under the banner of The Green Runners (TGR) to reimagine the sport by cutting emissions, tackling waste and urging others to join the race against climate breakdown.
“You don’t have to be vegan, you don’t have to give up flying altogether or have a stupid haircut like me,” jokes TGR co-founder and professional ultra runner Damian Hall. “We’re just meeting people where they are and letting them make their own changes. People really seem to want it.”
TGR sprang from a WhatsApp group of 50 runners who are passionate about sustainability before launching officially as a club three years ago. Running world legends including ultra champions Dan Lawson and Jasmin Paris were among the founding members and the club now counts more than 3,000 members united by a singular vision: to run without the footprint.
Researching his book, We Can’t Run Away From This, Hall uncovered a raft of troubling sustainability statistics, facts that would stop any climate-conscious runner in their tracks.
“I was horrified,” he says. “Running is nowhere near as bad as, say, football, but a big city marathon like Paris can have a similar carbon footprint to the entire lifetime emissions of 35 people.”
And there’s more. The global trainer industry pumps out as much planet-warming CO2 as the whole of the UK, where we send 300 million pairs to landfill every year. The 2018 London Marathon used more than 900,000 plastic bottles. And 60% of UK runners own 10 or more freebie race T-shirts.
“One of the most troubling aspects is sports brands telling us to throw our shoes away after 300-500 miles,” says Hall. “Or saying: ‘Here’s a new pair in a slightly different colour.’ It depends on the runner and the ground you’re running on, but plenty of people are getting 1,000 miles of use without issues. The umbrella problem here is over-consumption.”
In response, TGR lays out four ‘green pillars’. Not hard-and-fast rules, Hall notes, but more a friendly guide nudging members to think about, and try to mitigate, their impact on the planet.
You don’t have to be vegan, you don’t have to give up flying altogether… We’re just meeting people where they are and letting them make their own changes
‘How you travel’ encourages greener travel or, better still, racing closer to home while ‘How you kit up’ means buying less, choosing sustainable gear and making-do-and-mending. ‘How you fuel’ suggests cutting back on meat and dairy, and ‘How you speak out’ calls on runners to raise their voices, spotlight ‘sportwashing’, and push for industry-wide change.
For Hall, making a stand has come at personal cost. “It’s been an interesting journey,” he says. “I’ve fallen out with some sponsors because – I guess the nice line is – our values didn’t quite align.”
But TGR’s determination has also meant some notable wins. In 2023, the club spearheaded a campaign calling out Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) – a highlight of the annual ultramarathon calendar – over its partnership with car manufacturer Dacia. The partnership survived, but Dacia was replaced as title sponsor by the shoe brand Hoka.
Closer to home, TGR co-founder Darren Evans ran last year’s Brighton 10K dressed as a six foot-high bottle of Buxton water to protest the glut of plastic at the city’s marathon. The stunt sparked a conversation with Brighton and Hove city council, which later unveiled a new sustainable event commitment.
“Next year, when the Brighton Marathon comes to town, the organisers will be providing water refills instead of bottles,” Evans says.
For now, TGR is planning to build on the success of last year’s Greener Clubs pilot, a partnership with England Athletics, which saw 36 grassroots running clubs sign up to sustainability pledges. The aim is to spread the ethos nationwide by rallying existing running communities.
“It was amazing to be embraced in that way,” Hall says. “It just shows that people really do care about climate breakdown, and about what they can do to address it. No one’s perfect, we’re always going to have some negative impact. But this is about progress over perfection. We want to run without the footprint, and we need all runners to become Green Runners to do it.”
Four ways to green your running
TGR co-founder Darren Evans launched Pair Ups: a ‘puncture repair kit’ for trainer uppers to help runners get a few hundred miles more out of their favourite daps. The kits work equally well for minor repairs on jackets and hydration vests, Evans says. “Nothing lasts forever, so when your trainers reach end-of-life, can you downgrade them to walking shoes? Or if the uppers are still OK, get them professionally re-soled?” he adds.
“An easy win is starting a buy-and-sell or kit swap channel in your club’s online community,” says fellow TGR co-founder Nina Davies, who led the Greener Clubs pilot. “It saves the pennies, keeps kit in circulation and gets the conversation going.” Davies also recommends clubs link up to share resources, an idea that will be central to a forthcoming second Greener Clubs pilot. “Remember that little steps are still important: they might not be leading to the kind of wholesale change that you need and want, but they’re starting people on that journey,” Davies says.
Plenty of Green Runners – Hall included – have made the switch to a plant-based diet, proving that high performance is entirely possible without the animal protein. Fitness journalist Lily Canter, co-author of Ultra Women, also recommends eschewing waste by ditching plastic-wrapped gels and snacks for homemade running fuel. “Whizz dates and figs with nuts and a splash of honey or peanut butter, then roll them into balls to make protein carb snacks,” she suggests.
Personal change is an important step along the road, but Hall urges runners to join collective action for maximum impact. “I get frustrated when the onus is placed back on us to reduce our own footprint,” he says. “We forget to look at the bigger picture, and the bigger companies who are doing all this harm. Join in with groups and protests, and speak out.”
We Can’t Run Away From This by Damian Hall is out now, published by Vertebrate Publishing Ltd
Images: Stuart March, Give Up Art