Becoming a Sustainable Runner: A Guide to Running for Life, Community, and Planet

I share this story because it illustrates some of the many barriers that prevent people from being able to participate in the nutrition and climate decisions we make every day. While making sure we do our best to eat in a way that aligns with our climate values is important, the benefit is negligible if we fail to address, through comprehensive pol

Carbon is not inherently bad. All living things are made of carbon. When we think of carbon in the context of our impact, we are referring to carbon dioxide in the form of a gas, released into the atmosphere, which, in excess amounts, leads to global warming. The carbon trapped in a shoe that ultimately goes into a landfill does not sound like an i

“I appreciate brands that build a product not only to last from a durability standpoint but that is classic in design and therefore durable through changing trends. The emotional or psychological durability of a piece of apparel is just as important; it means you’re not going to feel tired of that shirt or short in a season; it was designed to be t

This could look like someone who buys sustainable running clothes but doesn’t look into the environmental values of their elected representatives or who shies away from doing advocacy work for fear of “getting too political.” They might use an “environmentally friendly” credit card but not push for regulation of the financial industry (a known mega

Agriculture isn’t just a driver of climate change but is also a victim of its shifting conditions as the climate grows less stable and increasingly unpredictable. As Jonathan Safran Foer wrote in his book We Are the Weather, “Changing how we eat will not be enough, on its own, to save the planet, but we cannot save the planet without changing how w

Investigate the why behind your purchases. What do you really need? Practice slowing down before you buy. Wait a week and see if you still want or need that item. Words like green, sustainable, and natural have lost their meaning through giant corporations using them for minimal changes. Be aware. Have the hard conversation with loved ones about th

Reduce your consumption whenever possible. Use Buy Nothing groups and share between friends. Set a challenge to reuse each packaging item at least once. Remember, you don’t have to be a zero-waste master who fills only a mason jar of waste each week, but it is about reusing things whenever you can. Rethink your running clothes by choosing quality o

They believe they can gain knowledge of supply chains and hold corporations and governments accountable through direct action like reaching out to companies, writing letters, making calls, and, yes, sending tweets. Activist consumers usually work up to boycotts, strikes, and protests (but we do not have to go that far!). Above all, activist consume

Do they use sustainable materials? What sustainable initiatives are they supporting? Do they have a fair trade certification? Do they have a B Corp certification? Are they members of an environmental giveback, giving part of their profits to a nonprofit dedicated to climate solutions, like 1% for the Planet? What does their end-of-life recycling lo