Making the blue carpet green

AJ Bell 2021 World Triathlon Leeds will see all races reach a blue carpet finish, with this year’s event making a number of steps to add some green to the event.

Triathlon is a sport that benefits from having natural environments to swim, bike and run in, with lakes, parks and open countryside often forming the backdrop to events. AJ Bell 2021 World Triathlon Leeds is no different, with the entire event taking place in and around Roundhay Park.

As organisers of the event, British Triathlon, Leeds City Council, UK Sport and World Triathlon are committed to ensuring that the event has as little impact on the natural event venue as well as the wider environment as possible and are putting in place a number of initiatives to help make this happen.

Participant medals for this year’s event will be made from sustainably sourced British wood, helping to ensure that the journey to participants’ necks is as short as possible but also ensuring that the benefit is as long as possible.

The wood is from FSC certified forests in South Wales, meaning that the forest is being managed in a way that preserves biological diversity with the wood harvested to ensure sustainability of the forest and forest ecology.

Alongside their medal, participants will also receive a specially designed pair of socks which will be made from recycled plastic.

Participants will also receive a neck tube that can be used as a face covering, helping to reduce single use ones around the event.

Both items will come in packaging which is fully compostable, removing single use plastic from the athlete gifts, and they will both feature the unique styling of AJ Bell 2021 World Triathlon Leeds to give lasting take-aways to go with the memories made in Roundhay Park.

Also forming part of the event’s environmental actions is that the merchandise available to participants is from a variety of sustainable sources, helping them to look good and feel good.

The cycle jersey, ¼ zip top and technical t-shirt are all made from recycled plastic bottles, giving new life to materials that otherwise could have found their way into the natural environment rather than into the hands of event participants, with the caps and drawstring bags made from 100% recycled polyester.

In addition to the recycled plastic merch, the cotton t-shirts and zip up and pullover hoodies are made from sustainable organic cotton. Sourcing sustainable materials means that the ecosystems that these materials form part of are not harmed in the way that the materials are grown or harvested to produce the items available to participants. Merchandise is now available to purchase here.