There is no running on a dead planet.

Evergreen Trail Runs is committed to being a responsible and ethical company. To that end, we are committing ourselves to being carbon neutral in 2022.

NEW: Race or event organizers can now download a free carbon footprint excel calculator for use with their own offsetting

Learn more about what we’re doing on this great episode of the Head Start Podcast, where Porter talks about carbon neutral race production.

We are a member of 1% For the Planet, donating 1% of our pre-tax gross revenue to impact the sustainability of our earth and community for generations to come. 1% of every dollar spent at Evergreen Trail Runs benefits the earth. 

Carbon Footprint Reduction

Here is the list of what we are doing to reduce our emissions:

• Race day participant transportation: This is by far the largest single source of emissions.  We estimate the 2022 total for participant, staff and volunteer travel to/from races to be approximately 550 tonnes of CO2e. To offset that, we purchased 550 tonnes of offset credits on January 12th. We purchased another 600 tonnes on August 8th to make us carbon negative for 2022. View more information and our certificates below.
• Zero Waste Station: all races in 2023 will have our zero waste station to improve our landfill diversion towards recycling and compost
• Shoe Recycling: we will be holding shoe recycling collection programs at all of our races.
• Race day direct emissions: the single source of direct emissions was generator usage for powering our archway blower and PA system. We have switched over to a wooden archway, eliminating the need for the blower, and use rechargeable power packs for our PA systems. The power packs are charged at home using Seattle City Light’s carbon-free electricity.
• Staff work from home utilities: where possible, we pay extra for the electricity used in our home offices to be 100% wind energy. When not possible, we take into account the carbon emissions generated from home office utilities in our offsets.
• Merchandise shipping: we use Cloverly to offset all carbon emissions from all merchandise shipping.
• Bib production and shipping: we have switched to a smaller bib size to consume less non-recyclable Tyvek, and offset the carbon emissions from bib mailing.
• Shirt production: In 2022, we are switching to recycled tri-blend t-shirts for our runners. The shirts are made of a blend of cotton, polyester and rayon. The polyester, which makes up 50% of the shirt, is recycled.
• Medal, award and finisher swag production: all of our race awards and finisher swag are made locally in Anacortes, using solar power from panels installed on our production facility (the garage).
• Trees Not Tees: we are offering participants the option to have a tree planted in their name in lieu of a race shirt during registration. Doing so not only uses less resources and diverts waste from landfills, each tree can absorb up to one ton of carbon by the time it is 40 years old.

Want to reduce your footprint?

Start with calculating your own footprint–we like the one from The Nature Conservancy.

Then, download and read this! We got this from our friends at the Nature Conservancy.