Acea Run Rome The Marathon, the Rome marathon organised by Infront Italy, Corriere dello Sport – Stadio, Italia Marathon Club and Atielle has chosen ‘Circularity’ as its Sustainability Partner to launch, from 19 September 2021 to 2023, a project aimed at reducing its environmental impact and organising virtuous initiatives to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Circularity’s main role is to measure the environmental impact of the marathon, through an internationally standardised protocol (UNI EN ISO 14064-1:2018 GHG Protocol), analysing in particular:
caused by energy sources directly transformed by the event staff (e.g. staff transportation means to reach the event);
related to auxiliary activities of the event (e.g. emissions related to the mobility of participating athletes, supply chain, waste generation and use of goods distributed during the event);
The measurement of the 2021 edition will have the main purpose of creating a project baseline that will be updated during the editions of the next two years with new estimates and measurements and that will enable the development of compensation plans and concrete actions to reduce emissions.
The sustainability project carried out by Circularity for the event is based on four key aspects in addition to measuring the ARRTM’s carbon footprint:
Identification and management of best practices from a social-environmental perspective;
Training employees to create awareness and consciousness on sustainable development issues;
Certification then obtained for the 2022 edition through the full and active involvement of Circularity in the drafting of the management manual, as well as in the drafting of the Infront Italy Sustainability Policy.
Support for ISO 20121 (Sustainable Event Management System) certification provided by RINA, a third-party and impartial certifying body.
Creation of a communication strategy that highlights sustainability initiatives and avoids ‘greenwashing’;
In particular, thanks to Circularity’s commitment and active search for virtuous solutions, partnerships have been set up with Retake Roma (a non-profit organisation active throughout the country for urban regeneration and awareness campaigns on correct waste management), Plastic Free (a non-profit organisation committed to raising awareness of the environmental problem linked to plastic, especially disposable plastic, and the dangers of its dispersion in nature) along the marathon route to recover waste thrown on the ground by runners and to correctly dispose of it in the appropriate bins. Another very important collaboration, especially from a social point of view, is the one with the Banco Alimentare Roma Association; thanks to this partnership, in the 2021 and 2022 editions respectively 23 and 41 tonnes of food were recovered along the route of the sports event and donated to charitable organisations in the Lazio region.
To be consistent with what is intended to be the event’s emissions reduction project and impact reporting, Circularity through its partner zeroCO2 (a benefit company that deals with reforestation) has worked together with the various actors involved to create the ‘Rome Marathon Forest’, a high social impact forest composed of 3,000 trees – planted by the organisation itself – and with the possibility for visitors and runners to contribute to the forest through the purchase of a tree.
The 2023 edition of the marathon will see the involvement of many other actors committed to sustainability and especially to the circular economy, bringing the Rome Marathon to be a benchmark for mass events and to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
