Doing our bit for o’l Ma Earth

"It's just one straw" said eight billion people.

Sayan Basak, Times of India

Ted’s Run for Literacy is committed to reducing our carbon footprint. We’ve always aspired to be Green, but this year we’re stepping up our game considerably! We like to think we are leaders in the running community.

Going Green is complicated business and costly. It means rethinking our event from top to bottom and making tough decisions.  It means risking inconveniencing our dear patrons.  It means extra work for our small volunteer base. It means reducing our carbon footprint as much as possible within our limited means.

Most of all it means getting the word out…

GO YELL IT FROM THE MOUNTAINS!

TED’S RUN FOR LITERACY IS GREEN!

In no particular order, Ted’s Run for Literacy is committed to the following actions:

• We will significantly reduce all single use plastic including straws and plastic water bottles from our 2019 event.
• We will purchase compostable cups for our water stations. The cups are gathered at the end of the event for professional composting.
• Our cake will be served on paper napkins (i.e. not paper plates).
• We will not provide plastic cutlery (cake tastes best when eaten with fingers, duh).
• We will significantly reduce our paper brochures and other paper media.
• The cups provided by Tim Hortons, MacDonalds, and Starbucks are not recyclable. For this reason we encourage patrons to bring their own cup for hot beverages.
• We encourage patrons to bring their own refillable water bottle.
• Our medals are handmade by a local artist, Natalie Ferguson, thus reducing our carbon footprint and supporting a local artist.
• We will continue to separate waste generated at our event into three categories: landfill, compost, and recyclable.
• We will collect unwanted used bibs and give them to MRA who will collect them for the Youth Series events.

We welcome your feedback.  Please let us know what you think of these initiatives. Will you be inconvenienced? Are we expecting too much by asking patrons to bring their own water bottle and cup?  Perhaps you have some ideas that we haven’t thought of, if so share them in the comment section below.

As always, it’s a good day to be alive.

Mike