Environment
At London Marathon Events we work hard to inspire activity and to ensure that all our events deliver a range of positive social and economic impacts.
Our challenge is to ensure that we deliver these benefits without damaging our environment.
Our environmental objective is: to drive positive change in environmental sustainability through our own actions and inspire our stakeholders and partners to do the same.
We are working hard to reduce the negative impacts we have on the environment
Our priorities
We aim to improve every year as we get better data on our impacts and as new products and services become available that help us in our mission.
Our three main areas of focus are:
- Greenhouse gas emissions – aiming for net zero emissions by 2030.
- Waste – reducing the amount of waste generated, and recycling as much as we can.
- Product and materials – choosing products made of more environmentally-conscious materials that can be re-used and/or recycled.
What causes the environmental impacts from our events?
Greenhouse gas emissions:
- Travel (participants, volunteers, staff, suppliers, spectators)
- Transport (moving barriers, toilets, infrastructure, baggage)
- Generators (to power PA system, timing system, catering, media)
Waste:
- Food and drink (cans, bottles, gel wrappers, cups, banana skins)
- Clothing (from the start line)
- Event items (numbers, foil blankets, kitbags)
Product and materials:
- Medals
- T-shirts
- Branding and signage
Noise and disturbance:
- Noise
- Lighting at night
- Trampling
- Damage to trees and park areas from vehicle movements and infrastructure
- Littering
Here’s what we are doing
Greenhouse gas emissions
- We charge a carbon levy to international participants which is spent on carbon removal credits to mitigate the effects of overseas travel.
- We offer participants a tailored low-carbon travel plan to help them get to our events.
- Bike parking is available at most events to encourage active travel.
- Events are easily accessible via public transport.
- Most hired vehicles (such as vans and logistics vehicles) are electric.
- All on-course vehicles and LME vehicles are electric.
- Some larger baggage lorries run on HVO fuel (hydrotreated vegetable oil) which produces lower emissions and is far less polluting than diesel.
- Mains electricity is used wherever possible (as this is more efficient than using temporary generators).
- All generators run on HVO fuel. Increasing use of batteries to reduce generator run-time.
- Due to the high carbon emissions from some beef production systems, we have taken beef off the menu for all our food offerings in 2024.
Waste
- We no longer give out food items at the Finish of our running events and participants are asked to bring their own.
- Bungees are used instead of plastic cable ties to attach branding to barriers.
- Any clothing dropped at our events is collected by our partners, the Salvation Army Trading Company, and then sent to their facility to be sorted for resale in shops or reprocessing.
- Buxton Natural Mineral Water bottles are collected separately at our events and are sent to be recycled into new Buxton bottles. Lucozade bottles are also collected, separated and sent for recycling.
- All our events feature staffed recycling stations where participants (and the public) can hand in their waste to a team member who will make sure it goes in the right bin.
Product and materials
- All our medals are made from recycled zinc alloy. We order medals in bulk to reduce freight movements (they are shipped by sea). Any leftover medals are recycled within the UK and the ribbons are recycled too.
- We offer a finisher “tree” as the default finisher item at the majority of our running events. (Trees are planted in the UK on behalf of participants). Participants can choose to have a recycled polyester T-shirt if they prefer.
- At our running events, Buxton Natural Mineral Water is provided in 100% recycled and recyclable plastic bottles.
- Branding is saved, washed and stored for re-use. Generic event signage is undated and unbranded and is saved and stored to be used across multiple events.
- Polyester branding is reprocessed into rPET pellets.
- Recyclable kitbags are made from at least 75% sugarcane.
- Any cups used are compostable.
- Serveware at festivals and hospitality is all compostable.
- No single-use plastic used by food and drink vendors or in hospitality.
Reporting
Leaving the Right Impression
In 2020 we launched our first-ever environmental impact report, Leaving the Right Impression, which set out the waste, emissions and products produced and used across all our events, and at our head office and warehouse.
This report is now published annually. You can access them below.