We talk a lot about Leave No Trace in trail running, our carbon footprints get the odd discussion, but we ignore the biggest environmental impact our sport and hobby has on the natural world, in what we eat during our adventures and serve at race aid stations and checkpoints.
The Green Box is a simple idea, there are two key points that the Green Box aim to hit, bulk food offerings without single-use plastic wrappers and make it all plant-based and vegan.
Provide bulk bought foods without single-use plastic wrappers and put the plant-based food at an aid station inside a green square, using green tape, so runners can see at a glance what has the lightest footprint, what is most inclusive and is vegan and plant-based, without having to work out what they can have.
No labels to read mid-race, no guesswork for the aid station volunteers or yourself, just a simple green box made of tape.
I've been to countless races, i've always carried most of my own fuel and food for that event but it's always great to dive in to the food offerings they may have. As a vegan and environmentalist, i've come across many ultra-marathon race aid stations and checkpoints when i've been absolutely shattered and both myself and the volunteers there have no idea what is or isn't vegan.
Trail Runnings Biggest Environmental Impact
Aid station food is one of the most overlooked part of a races environmental impact, overshadowed by how we travel to a location.
These are two distinctively different areas of issue, food is mostly an environmental issue whilst travel is more of a climate issue, yet both are related and intertwined in how they affect the planet.
When we think about travel, we think GHG emissions, when you look in to the biggest environmental impacts on the planet and natural world, food is the leading driver of environmental destruction.
Things like deforestation, biodiversity loss, habitat loss, river pollution, all the tangible things that actually make up trail running and the natural world are dramatically and negatively impacted by what we put in our mouths.
This is one of the main reasons we began For The Trail, because of our tangible relationship with the natural world, we say this a lot here, our sport and hobby is based on nature, so it is nature that we must protect.
How The Green Box Works
How this works is very simple, at an ultra-marathon aid station or checkpoint with food, all of the vegan food is placed together and categorised within a green box that is taped on to the table the food is location, just as you see in the banner image.
This is done as the aid station is set up so that when volunteers come and go, they know that the food items within that green box are all vegan when someone asks.
And all wrappers or food packaging can be kept to the side of this green box so that participants and the volunteers can double and triple check the ingredients list if they want.
With the aim of making most of the food on offer without single-use wrappers.
All an ultra-marathon race has to do is buy some green tape, like below, preferably paper masking tape and create the box on the table that the food sits within.
We're at the very beginning of this project and concept, it's in the early stages of testing and refining in public, the same way everything else on For The Trail is.
If you're a race director, aid station volunteer, or runner with ideas, we'd love to hear them.