Draft:The Green Runners
The Green Runners (TGR) is an environmentally-conscious running group “Established just in time”, as it says on their badge.
Originating from a shared passion for running and concerns for the climate and ecological emergency, TGR has 3,000 members around the world, including Kilian Jornet and Innes FitzGerald, has been nominated two BBC Green Sports Awards, and has conducted notable campaigns against sportswashing.
The inspiration for the group can be traced back to GB ultrarunner Dan Lawson and his wife Charlotte Jalley, co-founders of ReRun Clothing, who sounded the alarm in the running world about sportswear and the global waste crisis.
Lawson started a WhatsApp group with fellow GB ultrarunner Damian Hall, which led to protests at COP26 in Glasgow 2021. While an ode set to video, created by Darren Evans, pleading for world leaders to act, went viral.
The group of climate-concerned runners, including Jasmin Paris, Jim Mann (Trees Not Tees co-founder), Nina Davies, Taz Babiker, Ellie Wardell, Charlie Harpur, Andrew Murray, David Starley, Finlay Wild, Ajay Hanspal and James Williams, officially launched The Green Runners on Earth Day, April 22, 2022.
Paris shared the first video pledge on social media. Instead of adding to more clothing waste, TGR introduced a distinctive badge, crafted by ReRun from repurposed race T-shirts.
The Green Runners have four pillars:
- How we move
- How we kit up
- How we eat
- How we speak out
To join, runners are encouraged to make action-based pledges on one or more of these pillars (plus a small fee towards operational costs).
Though TGR maintains independence from corporate brands, it has partnering with the Running Out of Time Relay three times, an ambitious project which involved hundreds of runners, walkers, wheelers and cyclists passing a relay baton on a journey from Ben Nevis to Big Ben, gaining significant media attention.
TGR’s growing influence was reflected in a petition calling on UTMB Mont-Blanc to ditch its high-carbon, headline sponsor, a car manufacturer, in line with the Game Changer Sponsorship Pledge. The petition garnered nearly 3,000 signatures, including ultra-running legends including five-time UTMB-winner Lizzy Hawker, four-time UTMB winner Kilian Jornet, Ellie Greenwood, Beth Pascall, Dakota Jones, Emelie Forsberg and others. The campaign led to wide press coverage in the UK, US and France, and to (ongoing) discussions between TGR and Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc.
TGR is also working with England Athletics on several sustainability initiatives, continues to campaign against high-carbon sportswashing in running, as well as the wastefulness of the sportswear industry.
In 2023 and 2024, TGR was nominated for Grassroots Organisation of the Year at the BBC Sport Green Sport Awards, with members Ellen Donald and Innes FitzGerald nominated for Young Athlete of the Year, which FitzGerald won in 2023.
References
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