We are runners, we often run outdoors, we participate in trail races in the most beautiful places, and we try to make the most of the corners of nature we are lucky enough to happen upon during our runs. But we know How much weight, in terms of pollution production, does each of our runs weigh? I have to be honest, this is not a question I have asked myself very frequently, because, in fact, I always thought that the pollution that can cause one of my runs was only that of exhaled carbon dioxide-very little, in fact, since all living things produce CO2 with breathing and they certainly do not pollute.
Things, however, are not so simple. Running, understood as a recreational activity carried out locally, does not actually add significant amounts of gas emissions to the environment, so it could be considered a completely green activity that does not add to the approximately eleven thousand (11.000!) tons ofCO2 that an ordinary European citizen produces each year, and remains in line with other sports activities such as tennis or soccer. The problem therefore is related to everything around running, the level the runner intends to reach and the competitions he or she wants to participate in.
The major weight of what is called the carbon footprint is given by the two nutrition-buying components, which concern what is eaten by the runner differently from the normal diet (e.g., the bars or gels that are consumed during long distances and mineral salts) and, of course, shoes + clothing. These two items (their production and transport to the store or to the home) add an average of 0.6 tons ofCO2 emissions to the environment on top of what is normally produced. Somewhat surprisingly, however, the burden on the transportation component, in the sense of the commute to perform the sporting activity, is limited, thanks to the fact that running has the advantage that it can be performed close to home and does not require a large commute for training.
So far, however, the increase is fairly moderate and could be offset simply by decreasing car use, perhaps by walking or taking public transportation to work or grocery shopping. The biggest problem arises when runners travel to participate in races far from home, especially when they need to use a plane to travel. The runner who goes from Rome to Berlin for the Marathon, or even worse the one who flies from Europe to New York, increases by up to 35 percent,
at one time
, his own annualCO2 production. It means that in addition to the eleven thousand tons normally produced, to get to and from New York reaches a production of nearly fifteen thousand. With one trip.
WHAT CAN WE DO THEN?
Given the data, in order to keep our ecological footprint as low as possible, we can think about scheduling our travel for Marathons using less polluting means than the airplane (the train for example), but since this possibility is not applicable in some cases (going to New York by train is difficult), we should try to work on what is feasible in our daily life, so above all change something in our consumption habits. Spending a few extra euros on a jersey or shorts for training so that it can last longer, buying shoes at a nearby place, shopping at our neighborhood market. Little tricks of daily living that will make us lace up our shoes with the knowledge that we have done something good for our planet, which is the only one we can live on, and run.
Photo credits: ColiN00B on Pixabay
(Inspired by the article “The Carbon Footprint of Marathon Runners: Training and Racing” by Castaignède et al., 2021.)