THE world running organisation the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) is delighted to declare the Milano City Marathon as the winner of the inaugural AIMS Green Award.

The award, which highlights good environmental performance in marathon events, will be presented to the successful Italian race during the inaugural AIMS Best Marathon Runner Awards Gala Dinner on Friday 8 November 2013 in Athens, Greece.

Also shortlisted for the award were Sweden’sGoteborgsVarvet Half Marathon and Germany’s BMW Frankfurt Marathon.

Earlier this year the Milano City Marathon was also awarded with ReSport Silver certification (issued by the Council for Responsible Sport – USA*), becoming the first Marathon in Europe to reach this goal.

The Milano City Marathon used a number of different initiatives to help achieve their environmental goals. These included race

participants being given a free day ticket for public transport, while the Milan Municipality agreed to an “ecological day” banning all private motorised transport on the day of the race.

 

Participants had to register their entry online and specifically opt in if they wanted to receive finisher awards and t-shirts, reducing the number required. To further reduce the amount of waste the event generated, volunteers were trainedto help with the collection of waste and recycling, the race t-shirt suppliers reduced their packaging which helped save 80kg of plastic and 60% of the heatsheets distributed at the finishing line were collected to be reused for future events.

Non-profit organisations were featured at race day events, were given space on the Milano City Marathon website and had their information included in newsletters. These organisations also received donations from the Milano City Marathon with fundraising sitting at approximately €130,000.

As well as this, the Milano City Marathon collaborated with the municipality of Milan on the mapping of the city’s first running route as a useful tool for runners. The race also prepared training charts to help participants work towards the target time they were hoping to achieve and to encourage first-time athletes the race developed a special award for the first eighteen-year-old who crossed the finish line.

Candidates for the AIMS Green Award were judged upon a number of areas including the impact the race has had on promoting environmentally friendly practices in marathon events, how volunteers contribute to the success of the project and the ability for the race to educate younger generations about the benefits of sport and environmental protection. This is in line with AIMS’ own environmental guidelines and the IOC Olympic Movement’s Agenda 21.**

The AIMS Green Award was set up in collaboration with George Kazantzopoulos, Member of the IOC Sport and Environment Commission and President of the Institute Team for the World Environmental

 

Alliance 2004+, a non-governmental not-for-profit organisation which was the scientific partner of AIMS in the development of the AIMS Environmental Guidelines.

A screening and research process by a jury panel made up of AIMS and independent judges lead to a shortlist of three candidates. From this shortlist the AIMS Board of Directors then made the final award selection decision.

PacoBorao, President of AIMS said: “I am delighted that the Milano City Marathon is the first winner of the AIMS Green Award highlighting good environmental practice. They have developed an excellent strategy on minimisingthe environmental impact their marathon event has.There was an excellent selection of entries for the award providing some strong competition, including the runners up, the GoteborgsVarvet Half Marathon and the BMW Frankfurt Marathon. All the races who entered have done some highly acclaimed work to show how environmentally conscious they are. I hope they can act as role models for other races around the world as this is such an important issue for us all.”

Andrea Trabuio, Milano City Marathon’s Race Organiser added: “We are really honoured to receive this award, especially as we are aware of the high levels of environmentally friendly initiatives that AIMS races around the world have implemented. We would like to thank AIMS and the sponsor of the gala dinner OPAP for their support and recognition of our work. We believe that the Best Marathon Runner Award, this new initiative of AIMS, will not only recognise the sport achievements of the best marathon runners every year, but will promote further our sport and will project to the whole community worldwide the myriad benefits this sports brings along with it. Milano City Marathon will be in Athens, the home of AIMS Headquarters, in order to receive the award during the AIMS BMR Gala, to attend the 7th AIMS Marathon Symposium and enjoy the Athens International Marathon on the Authentic course.”