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.