Sustainability
With sustainability vital to all of our futures, The Royal Parks do everything we can to help reduce the impact of the Royal Parks Half Marathon on the environment.
Environmental Policy
Here at the Royal Parks Half, we have committed to making the event as sustainable as possible, while maintaining the high-quality race experience that everyone deserves. As part of this we’ve developed an environmental policy which details everything we’re doing to help achieve this. We’re encouraging all our partners, charities and runners to join us in this movement and follow the principles outlined in the policy.
You can read the full environmental policy below
International travel to the Royal Parks Half
International participant travel is the largest contributor to the carbon footprint of the Royal Parks Half Marathon, accounting for 90.5% of participant travel emissions for the 2024 event.
Across our event, we're taking action to reduce our environmental impact while monitoring our carbon footprint closely.
We have stopped working with International Tour Operators who sell package tours including half marathon entries and have introduced a separate ballot for international entrants to limit the number of entries for those travelling from overseas.
Reducing the number of people travelling by air to take part will have a significant impact on reducing our carbon footprint as we move toward our goal of becoming the one of the UK’s most sustainable major half marathons.
Hydration on course
This is a big one.
Single-use plastics are a huge part of the impact of races like the Royal Parks Half, so we’ve removed them from the equation and we need your support.
We encourage all our runners to be self-sufficient with their hydration but also recognise that different runners have different needs, therefore there will be water stations on the route featuring both refill points and compostable cups, ensuring all runners have access to water during the race.
We’re working to reduce any waste associated with water stations, meaning a cleaner and more sustainable race for everyone.
We also encourage all of our runners to practice training and racing with this in mind, using whatever hydration method you wish, so that long term we can commit to ditching plastic bottles for good.
