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Environment
What's New: • We are extremely excited to announce that we joined One Percent For The Planet on July 1, 2008. As such, we are now donating at least 1% of total revenues (in other words, "off the top," not just 1% of profit, which would be next to nothing!) to environmental causes. This is in addition to all the work we do on behalf of, and donations we make to, our two Official Charities, Challenged Athletes Foundation and Major Taylor Association, as outlined or our Charity Page. 1% For The Planet is a growing global movement 899 companies (and counting) that donate 1% of their sales to a network of 1,582 environmental organizations (and counting) worldwide. We are pleased and proud to be in such good company!
Membership in the Alliance is open to companies representing all aspects of the outdoor industry, including manufacturers, retailers, publishers, mills and sales representatives. The result is a diverse group of businesses whose livelihood depends on protecting our natural environment. Since its inception in 1989, the Alliance has contributed more than $6 million to grassroots environmental groups. Alliance funding has helped save over 39 million acres of wildlands; stop or remove 26 dams; and preserve access to more than 16,000 miles of waterways and several climbing areas.
What We've Been Doing: • As of 2007, we are using 100% Organic Cotton for our event t-shirts and hats. • Extensive efforts are made to minimize the environmental footprint - and maximize safety - at Furnace Creek 508. RVs and motorhomes have been banned for many years. In 2006, The 508 became the only race of its kind to limit entrants to one support vehicle, and to continue to limit the maximum vehicle width to 78". In 2007 we initiated the Green Teams program to recognize and rewards entrants who take personal efforts to mitigate their environment footprint and educate the public about the environment. In 2007 we began limiting runners to no more than two support vehicles and six crew members for the Badwater Ultramarathon, while RVs and motorhomes have been banned since 2000. In 2009 we plan to roll out a Green Teams program at Badwater. • We encourage carpooling to our Spring and Fall Death Valley Century and Double Century, and to all our events, whether in Death Valley, Mt. Shasta, or the Central Coast. Riders looking for carpool buddies may do so through our Blog / Forum. • Since 2005 we have used online registration for the Spring and Fall Death Valley Century and Double Century, eliminating a lot of wasted paper and the pollution associated with mailing us over 600 pieces of mail each year. We are exploring ways to use a similar approach to Furnace Creek 508 and the Badwater Ultramarathon, although their invitational format makes that much more difficult. • We recycle extensively and relentlessly at home, in our office, and at all our events. We find it preposterous that the "standard issue" garbage cans at home are about eight times the size of the city-provided recycling bins. We always have far more recycling than traditional garbage. Paying our bills online also saves paper and reduces pollution. We run errands on foot or bike and routinely don't even drive a car at least three or more days a week. We want to drive even less. We're also vegetarian and promote this lifestyle choice softly but regularly. • The "AdventureCORPS News" email newsletter currently goes out to over 7,000 athletes and reaches even more every day. Our goal with it is to send only useful, informative, interesting, and entertaining info, insights, stories, and more about our events, the people who do them, the greater world of endurance and adventure sports, and the natural world in which these events are held. As such, we routinely feature environmental news from Death Valley, the Mojave Desert, and the world at large. This is always very well received and we are thankful for that. This email newsletter is also now archived our the AdventureCORPS Blog. • With the launch of our new website format in late September 2007 we have gone to more of a "portal" format and design. This allows us, among other things, to bring you environmental news on a nearly daily basis, instead of just one to four times a month via our email newsletter. Therefore, stay tuned to the Headlines section on the front page of this site on a daily basis for a steady stream of links to useful, informative, interesting, and entertaining stories about the venues for our events, the natural world in which they are held, the action heroes who work to protect them, and what you can do to support your own health and the health of the world "out there." We will usually update this section several times a week, so bookmark that page and enjoy it with your morning tea, or while you're surfing at work, every day! (Also, we archive all the Headlines that move off the front page (after a week or so) to this archive page.) We Want To Do Better• We'd like to require our official sponsors to provide any paper promotional products - for including in goodie bags and distribution to event participants and staff - on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with soy-based ink. • We want to use 100% post-consumer paper, and soy-based ink, for our annual Race Magazines for Badwater and The 508. We hope to convince the "mom and pop" printer we've used for the past decade to keep our business by making this possible. Beginning in 2008 we have also cut the size of the magazines in half and pared their content down to the bare essentials in order to use less paper. • We support two Official Charities - Challenged Athletes Foundation and Major Taylor Association - in may ways, including financial, promotional, providing opportunities and incentives for entrants to fund-raise for them via our events, and more. But we also want to get hands-on involved with, as well as financially support, more than one specifically environmental organization. As noted above, in July 2008 we joined One Percent For The Planet, so we are officially committd to financially supporting environmental groups. There's more than one environment group we'd really like to support.>>>
We love what our neighbours (literally; they are based here in Oak Park, CA) at IEMANYA Oceanica are doing to protect sharks and rays, along with their habitats. AdventureCORPS athletes and event participants are presumably mostly interested in the desert, since most of our events take place in Death Valley, but the world is covered primarily with water and the ocean environment is manifestly important to all of us, no matter where we live. I grew up sailing and later taught scuba diving and have always had a deep connection to water. We want to get involved with and support IEMANYA Oceanica, with or without the "support" of the AdventureCORPS Community, however we hope they (you) will embrace this effort, even if it's not as "directly" connected to our events as are our two current Official Charities. We would also like to take care of at least one section of California roadway through the Cal Trans Adopt-A-Highway program. Would you like to be a part of these efforts? This is just the beginning. Let's write the future together! - Chris Kostman, Chief Adventure Officer, AdventureCORPS, Inc. Some Related Articles We've Published"The Way of the Outdoor Athlete" "A Plea For Eating With a Purpose" "A Day in the Life of an Adventure Athlete" |
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• As of 2008, we have replaced the Badwater Ultramarathon and Furnace Creek 508 goodie bags, formerly made of paper or plastic, with 100% recycled tote bags which we had custom-made for us. These are great bags and will hopefully live on for many years as a stylish shopping bag or for lugging anything around. Want one? Enter The 508 or Badwater!
