Greening Triathlon

Greener Travel

Although the Busselton 70.3 is held in Busselton requiring many competitors and spectators to travel long distances to be there, it is still possible to make environmentally conscious decisions on how best to travel to Busselton.

Some things to consider are below:

• Is your car full? If you need to travel in your own car, try and make it as efficient as possible by offering a lift to someone else and filling those empty seats. If you don’t know of anyone in need of a lift, sign up to our car-pooling community online, which helps put people in need of a lift with those who can offer one. Who knows, you might even make a new friend along the way.
• Which car to take? If you are travelling with a friend, relative or supporter, than give some consideration to which car to take. Will all your equipment fit in the smaller of the options with out any trouble? If so, why not take the smaller one and use less fuel along the way? By taking a medium petrol car, rather than a large one, you can avoid 30kg of CO₂e in emissions.
• Encourage others to car-pool. Do you have friends or supporters coming down to cheer you on? Then why not encourage them to car pool as well. You can give them a link to the online car-pooling software, or you can put them in touch with other supporters from your club.
• Live interstate or overseas? If you’re travelling from elsewhere in Australia, or even overseas, than chances are you don’t have access to your own transport in Perth unless you hire it. Before you hire, make sure you give some consideration to travelling by the bus-pool or car-pooling options above. If these absolutely do not work for you, and you must hire a car, than give some thought to what size and type of car you hire. Many car hire companies now provide hybrid vehicles, which are a great way to reduce the impact of your travel, and get some great reactions from other people too!
• What about offsetting your emissions? If you’ve had to fly to Perth for the Busselton 70.3, did you consider offsetting your emissions? Most airlines make it fairly simple to add this to the price of your flights. But do remember to check if there is any accreditation for the offsets to make sure that they are credible and to give you some peace of mind in what you are buying.

Car Pooling

Carpool with other competitors or spectators to Busselton!

Use the link below to find other competitors and spectators to car pool to the Ironman 70.3 Busselton Triathlon.

http://www.liftshare.com/event/56

Our Greener Triathlon

Our journey to build a greener triathlon first began in 2009 when an idea was presented to the Board. It was all about acknowledging that Triathlon WA, and indeed the sport of triathlon, had a part to play in ensuring we minimised our impact on the environment, and reduced our resource usage.

With support from the board we set about writing an Environmental Sustainability Policy that not only looked at our own actions, but also highlighted the opportunity for Triathlon WA to help to raise awareness within the broader triathlon community about environmental and sustainability issues. In particular, we decided to target:

• Habitat protection
• Resource conservation
• Waste and pollution reduction
• Healthy conditions for all associated with the sport of triathlon
• Environmental awareness and education
• Consultation with wider community

We partnered with a local company, Greensense, to understand what we needed to do, set some goals and started planning to ‘green’ the 2010 Busselton Half Ironman.

In our first year, it was all about making some small changes and measuring where we were so we could track our improvements into the future. We offered all competitors the opportunity to contribute to our goals through the optional green fee and were amazed at the overwhelming support this received in its first year.

Other changes we made in 2010 included:

• We arranged for recycling bins to be on site and we were able to recycle 46% of the event’s waste
• We worked with our sponsors to reduce the amount of paper that went into your race packs.
• We invested in biodegradable cups for use on the course and asked our food and drink providers to do the same.
• We encouraged car-pooling and bus-pooling
• And much more

Moving into this year’s triathlon, we are planning to reduce our energy use for onsite lighting, use local providers where possible, put more bins on the cycling leg and reduce our paper use even more.

But our Green Triathlon concept isn’t just about what we can do to reduce our own impact, it’s also about sharing the message with you, triathletes and other members of our community. Which is what these sections in our newsletter are all about. Our aim is to spread the message to encourage you to change your own behaviour at your clubs, your homes and your workplaces, so that together, we really can make a difference. So over the coming weeks, you’ll find more information here about what you can do, not only at the Ironman 70.3 Busselton but also long after the race.

Greening Triathlon

In 2009 we began embedding sustainability principles into our organisation and event planning. Not only do we want to do our bit to mitigate environmental problems such as climate change and resource depletion, but we also recognise that sustainable sporting is expected by our stakeholders and the wider community.

We are aiming to raise awareness and increase education about environmental sustainability and foster sustainable values and principles to all staff, volunteers, members, participants and corporate organisations involved in the sport of triathlon.

As part of the long term vision, this year, we are ‘greening’ the  Ironman 70.3 Busselton Triathlon. We expect the outcomes from this triathlon will trigger the improved sustainability of other triathlon events in Western Australia and beyond.

This page will be updated regularly to let you know what we are doing, but also to give you some tips on how you can help.

What are we doing?

We have partnered with Greensense, who have extensive experience in sustainable event management to help develop our key objectives and strategies. Greensense will assist with embedding sustainability initiatives into our event planning process, and will conduct a sustainability audit of the Busselton Half Ironman Triathlon to ensure we have a benchmark to track our future performance against.

We have implemented the optional green fee for competitors. This gives participants the opportunity to contribute towards improving the sustainability of the triathlon as well as contributing towards offsetting the emissions from competitors’ travel.

We are working with suppliers to identify opportunities to improve our sustainability such as using biodegradable or recyclable materials where possible, ensuring recyclable materials are not sent to landfill and reducing packaging.

How can you help?

Ultimately to improve our sustainability it is about working together. No matter if you are a competitor, spectator, corporate sponsor or concerned citizen, here are some ideas for what you can do to reduce your own environmental impact and that of the Ironman 70.3 Busselton Triathlon.

Athletes and spectators

Contribute directly to the initiatives by opting in for the $5 green fee when registering. This will be used to:

• offset the emissions from your travel to Busselton
• improve sustainability of waste, water and emissions management and
• measuring our current impact to track future improvements

1. Carpool with other competitors or spectators to Busselton and make sure you car is well maintained so that it runs efficiently.
2. When reviewing the course, stay on the marked paths and avoid disturbing the local vegetation and fauna.
3. Ensure all rubbish is disposed of appropriately, in particular, do not discard bidons or wrappers on the course.
4. Choose your accommodation giving consideration to their environmental policies.
5. Cycle or run to work – not only does this reduce your greenhouse gas emissions, but you can incorporate it into your training routine. Where you can’t cycle or run, try taking public transport.
6. Carpool to training sessions and events.
7. Buy local produce where possible. Not only is this great for the local community and economy, but you also reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with transporting goods long distances.

Suppliers and sponsors

1. Buy local produce where possible. Not only is this great for the local community and economy, but also reduces the greenhouse gas emissions associated with transporting goods long distances.
2. Use a greenstamp printer for your printing and promotional materials – greenstamp printing will ensure that paper is 100% recycled or sourced from sustainably managed forestry and that vegetable based inks are used.
3. If you have spare room on trucks for transporting goods, contact the event organizers to see if another supplier can utilize the space.
4. If you’re providing catering increase the number of organic or vegetarian options on the menu. Red meat is the most emissions-intensive food type. Organic food is ideal as it avoids the use of chemicals and toxins in pesticides and fertilizers. These can destroy the quality of the soil, leak into groundwater supplies and pollute the ocean.
5. Engage with your staff to encourage sustainable practices in your business. With knowledge of your business processes, your staff can be a great resource for identifying opportunities and implementing them.
6. If you’re running generators at the event, use biodiesel or only run the generator at full capacity when needed.
7. Look at your own organisation – do you have a sustainability policy? If not, develop one.
8. If you’re running generators at the event, use biodiesel or only run the generator at full capacity when needed.
9. Where possible reduce the packaging on your products – is it really necessary? If it is necessary, is it recyclable?
10. Consider if you able to generate our source renewable energy for your power requirements?