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  Sustainable cycling examples: athlete, team, event

  I think the efforts by the Kodak Gallery/Sierra Nevada Professional Cycling Team to become the first 100% carbon-neutral pro sports team serves as a terrific starting point for pro sports teams, cycling teams, and athletes to become more aware of their carbon footprint and provide support for alternative energy sources to offset their carbon emissions. If teams in every professional sports league/federation around the world took this step, there would likely be a significant amount of wind  power added to the grid.

  While not on the "pro" level, I'd like to submit three more examples from the cycling world that offer a more complete model for pursuing the sport of cycling in a sustainable way: one athlete, one team, and one event.

  1. Athlete: Daniel Summerhill, age 18 (Denver, CO), member of the Clif Bar Development Cyclo-Cross Team, 2-time Junior National Champion and silver medalist at last season's Cyclo-Cross World Championships. This talented teenager not only knows how to ride his bike fast - he also had all of the CO2 emissions from his race season travel offset through Native Energy, helped his team recycle and compost as much of their waste as possible, fueled up for races with as many local and organic food sources as possible, and helped spread Clif Bar's sustainability message at race events through product sampling and Cool Tag sales.

  2. Team: Clif Bar Development Cyclo-Cross Team, operated out of Boulder, CO with a mission to demonstrate a truly sustainable model for cycling team operation, in hopes of inspiring individual cyclists, clubs and teams, event promoters, and bike industry members to pursue cycling in the most sustainable way possible.

      - Team's CO2 emissions for the season offset
      with purchase of wind energy credits through
      Native Energy

      - All of team's Boulder events (training  
      camp, races) were Zero Waste, and the team  
      recycled and composted as much as possible
      when traveling

      - Team was able to eat home-cooked local and
      organic meals on race trips

  3) Event: US Gran Prix of Cyclo-Cross race weekend in Boulder, CO (Nov. 4-5, 2006), probably the most sustainable cycling event produced to date? The race promoters, race series sponsor Clif Bar, and our team addressed carbon emissions, the waste stream, and responsible care for the venue.

      - Team was responsible for Zero Waste
     component, partnering with Boulder-based
     Eco-Cycle to organize and implement a Zero  
     Waste plan for the weekend; we achieved a 75%
     waste diversion rate (75% of total waste was
     recycled and composted instead of being sent to
     the landfill)

      - Clif Bar offset the event-associated CO2
     emissions by purchasing wind energy credits
     through Native Energy; Cool Tags were sold to
     interested race participants and spectators who
     wanted to offset their travel to the race; Clif
     Bar made a donation to each race venue to help
     repair any race-induced damage and fund future
     projects

  We're looking forward to making further progress with our sustainability initiatives in 2007.

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  To learn more:

  http://www.sustainablecycling.com

   http://homepage.mac.com/pnicoll/Cyclocross/iMovieTheater2 ...On 15 Green Sports Stars posted 2 years, 5 months ago 15 Responses