Race officials for this year’s World Championship Road Race in Richmond, Virginia celebrated an historic event this week, when they announced they had receive the official UCI reCycling eco-label award.
The UCI created the reCycling program to help its members organize more environmentally responsible cycling events, by addressing practices in transportation, energy and water conservation, recycling and waste management, accommodations, catering, and supplies. UCI awards the eco-label to cycling events that have submitted an Environmental Management Plan documenting intended actions that meet the reCycling criteria.
“We’re very grateful to Mayor Jones for his leadership and to Alicia Zatcoff, the City of Richmond Sustainability Manager, for her hard work and commitment in obtaining the reCycling eco-label for the 2015 Championships,” said Wilson Flohr, Chief Executive Officer, Richmond 2015, Inc. “The eco-label will generate interest and benefit the image of our event. It also provides a tangible value to Richmond 2015, our sponsors, and partners to use the eco-label in promotional materials related to the 2015 Championships.”
“I applaud the City of Richmond and Richmond 2015 officials for their significant achievement. Their approach will encourage future UCI World Championships to become more environmentally responsible,” said UCI President Brian Cookson.
During the 2015 UCI Road World Championships, attendees will notice practical efforts to promote sustainability like mobile water-filling stations provided by the City’s Department of Public Utilities in the fan zones to reduce plastic use and a Green Team of volunteers who are focused on carrying out the eco-label initiatives.
“Attaining the official UCI reCycling eco-label for the 2015 Championships will help us enhance the City’s broader sustainability goals,” said Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones. “The City is strategically leveraging the World Championships to further community-wide initiatives that are essential for a vibrant and resilient Richmond. These initiatives enhance the quality of life for the entire community and will continue to benefit our residents long after the nine days of racing are over and the visitors have returned home.”
“Receiving the UCI eco-label acknowledges the efforts to date of so many within the community,” said Alicia Zatcoff, City of Richmond Sustainability Manager. “We want to maximize the opportunities for sustainability that hosting this major international event presents. To that end, we are pursuing the Council for Responsible Sport event certification which is based on the event’s actual performance in key areas of: equity, access, community impact, and legacy in addition to the environmental planning focus of the UCI eco-label.”
The 2015 UCI Road World Championships, will be held Sept. 19-27, 2015 in Richmond, Va., and is expected to attract 450,000 onsite spectators over the course of the nine-day event, as well as a worldwide TV audience in the hundreds of millions.
More than 1,000 cyclists – Elite Men and Women, Under-23 Men and Junior Men and Women – from more than 75 countries will compete in three disciplines: a Road Race, Individual Time Trial and Team Time Trial. The event, which is being held in the United States for the first time since 1986, culminates with the traditional road races on Sept. 26 (women) and Sept. 27 (men).
Press release:
4.22.15
The 2015 UCI Road World Championships to be held in Richmond, United States, has become the first UCI World Championships to receive the official UCI reCycling eco-label.
Richmond will host the UCI Road World Championships from 19-27 September, with over a thousand athletes and hundreds of thousands of spectators planning on attending the events. Richmond is aiming to use the event to encourage more sustainable behaviour, including more people cycling for both sport and transport.
Examples of initiatives that the City of Richmond and community partners are developing include the Department of Public Utilities mobile water filling stations to minimize the use of plastic water bottles; an initiative to encourage event vendors to use recyclable and compostable food service ware items instead of polystyrene (Styrofoam); and a green event toolkit to provide free sustainable event information and resources to other event organizers.
UCI President Brian Cookson said: “I applaud the City of Richmond and Richmond 2015 officials for their significant achievement. Their approach will encourage future UCI World Championships to become more environmentally responsible.”
“Attaining the official UCI reCycling eco-label for the 2015 Championships will help us enhance the City’s broader sustainability goals,” said Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones. “The City is strategically leveraging the World Championships to implement community-wide initiatives that are essential for a vibrant and resilient Richmond.”
The UCI reCycling programme recognises environmentally responsible cycling events that have taken steps to reduce the impact of transport (for example by providing incentives to the public to use public transport), conserve energy and water, establish recycling and waste management schemes, and encourage use of local “green” accommodation facilities, caterers and suppliers . UCI awards the eco-label to cycling events that have submitted an Environmental Management Plan documenting intended actions that meet the reCycling criteria.
The city has an ambitious goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the city by 80% by 2050 which equates to a 1.8% reduction every year.
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