This was the second year of the Zone Urban Epic, an olympic-distance triathlon and festival in the heart of Portland, Maine. The race site is an empty warehouse on the Portland Harbor used for boat repair. On July 25, the warehouse was transformed into an indoor transition area filled with bike racks. Participants were required to pick up their race packets and check their bike in the day before the race.

The race took place on Saturday, a beautiful, clear New England summer day, with a start time of 8:00 am. The point-to-point swim required athletes to be transported to the start by bus. It also involved a mini-transition at the swim exit for athletes to strip their wetsuits and change into running shoes for a half-mile run back to transition. The bike and run courses were both out-and-back loops. The run was along the edge of the scenic Portland Harbor. Over 300 athletes participated in the race and there were over 1,000 spectators.

The race was followed by a festival that included a rock band, a climbing wall for the kids, organic, local food provided by Whole Foods Market, and a beer garden provided by Sebago Brewing Co.

Tri-Maine Productions, the race organization that produced the Urban Epic, engaged with Bruce Rayner of Athletes for a Fit Planet in early 2008 to support their efforts to green the race. Will Thomas, Tri-Maine's executive director, initiated the effort and assigned the task of working with Athletes for a Fit Planet to Tri-Maine staffer Pete Miller. Pete embraced the challenge with enthusiasm and creativity and worked tirelessly on the planning and implementation of a number of environmental initiatives.

Waste
The stated objective for the 2008 Urban Epic was to minimize waste to landfill through comprehensive composting and recycling. There was no record of total waste produced at the 2007 race.

The majority of registrations were submitted online, thus reducing paper waste. All paper that Tri-Maine used in promotion and for registration was printed on recycled, recyclable paper. Catering sponsor Whole Foods provided the race bags, which were reusable/recycled/recyclable heavy paper bags. And sponsors were encouraged to minimize the paper they placed in the bags and to use recycled/recyclable paper.

Waste stations were set up around the transition area each with two bins: one for recycling and one for trash. These stations included signage that indicated which bin to use. Plastic, aluminum, tin and glass were allowed in the recycling bins. While the bins were not manned by volunteers, the process worked well, with minimal sorting of the bags required. Plastic disposable water and sports drink bottles were provided at the finish line for the athletes.

Tri-Maine chose to use compostable cups (clear PLA 9oz cups) at the aid stations on the run course instead of traditional PET-lined paper cups. After the race, these cups were collected and bagged by volunteers. In addition, a team of volunteers supplied by Atayne, an eco-apparel company, swept the run course and gathered all the trash on the course, including trash not produced by the event. Their efforts were part of Tri-Maine's objective of "leave no trace" and of restoring the public-use space to an improved state.

Team Atayne brought the trash bags back to the transition area and, together with TerraCycle, a New Jersey-based company that makes products out of used packaging materials, they sorted the waste into compost, recycling, and landfill waste. TerraCycle collected the energy bar and gel pack wrappers for re-use in the manufacturing of products.

Tri-Maine supplied Sebago Brewing Co. with compostable cups to use in their beer garden.

Whole Foods was the food caterer and provided all local and organic food for the post-race meal. The company supplied its own compostable materials, including plates, cups, napkins and utensils made from either corn starch or sugar cane. All waste from the post-race meal was disposed of in cardboard compost containers and Whole Foods hauled it to a commercial composting center.

The event sponsors, expo participants, and vendors were asked to recycle cardboard and paper produced for the race in order to minimize waste to landfill.

Unfortunately, Tri-Maine was not able to determine the total weight of the landfill, recycling, or compost waste. The landfill waste was combined with trash from the warehouse in the dumpster. And neither the recycler nor Whole Foods provided total weight for the recycling or compost, respectively. Tri-Maine counted a total of 14 large trash bags collected on the course and at the transition/festival site. Total weight was estimated at 250 pounds. After sorting the recycling and compostable waste from these bags, approximately 60-70% was sent to landfill. This represents less than 1 pound of waste per athlete.

One area of improvement for next year is the communication of the environmental initiatives during the race and festival. Tri-Maine provided the announcer with a script that detailed the environmental initiatives and the importance of recycling and composting, however, the announcer had to be reminded more than once to read the script. In total, the announcer mentioned the eco-initiatives only a few times during the day.

Climate
A major component of the Urban Epic's environmental initiative was making the event carbon neutral. Tri-Maine offset the carbon emissions of athlete travel to and from the race, staff and sponsor travel, and race-day operations. Race day offsets included calculating the fuel used by the shuttle buses as well as the boats used during the swim. Corporate sponsor FairPoint Communications was the "sustainability sponsor" of the race and paid the cost of offsetting 35 tons of CO2 through a contribution to the operation of a wind farm in northern Maine managed by Maine Interfaith Power and Light.

As part of race-day operations, Tri-Maine provided shuttle buses to and from the race site from parking lots across the city. They also bused athletes three miles to the swim start. While the shuttles helped reduce parking congestion and CO2 emissions, they used conventional diesel fuel.

Tri-Maine encouraged athletes to use public transportation and to carpool. Although Tri-Maine did not record compliance, they did include a question on the post-event survey requesting athletes' opinions. In total, 71% of athletes support carpooling (4 or 5 on a 5 point scale, n=76).

Because registration and bike check occurred the day before the race, athletes drove to the race site to drop off their bikes. The carbon footprint of the check-in process was not included in the total offset for the event. Re-engineering the check-in process to reduce and offset the event's carbon footprint is a challenge to be addressed in next year's race.

Tri-Maine committed to providing food that was locally sourced and catered by the Portland-based Whole Foods Markets. The food was vegetarian and included locally made bagels, fair trade bananas, and organic peanut butter. The beer served by Sebago Brewery in the beer garden was locally brewed in Portland.

Equipment and Materials
Tri-Maine produces a number of its own races and provides support services to other race organizers in New England. Thus, much of the equipment they own is shared with other race directors, including the finish line structures and the bike racks.

As for consumable materials, the Urban Epic chose to use compostable cups at the aid stations on the run and for food and beverage service after the race. The cups were made from corn (clear PLA) and were provided by World Centric. The compostable cups, like all disposable cups, are made in China so the large carbon footprint is an issue with no immediate solution.

Community & Outreach
A major component of the Urban Epic was the post-race festival that included performances by rock bands, a climbing wall for kids, sculptures and graffiti art, and an expo of companies and organizations invited to educate and promote environmental sustainability. Sustainability was one of the key marketing messages that Tri-Maine used to promote the Urban Epic in both print and radio ads.

The expo included booths from local conservation organizations, eco-apparel maker Atayne, re-use manufacturer TerraCycle, and environmental consultancy Athletes for a Fit Planet. Athletes and spectators were invited to sign the FitPlanet eco-pledge.

The cleanup of the run course conducted by Team Atayne also contributed to the community by enhancing a public use asset - the walking and bike trails around the Portland waterfront.

Health Promotion
A number of initiatives by Tri-Maine focused on health promotion at the Urban Epic. The first was through a bicycle training program for at-risk youth in the Portland area through the local bike shop and in cooperation with Tri-Maine. This program supplied refurbished bikes to low-income young athletes, some of whom participated in the race in the U19 category.

The second initiative was a program that encouraged first-time triathletes to participate in the race. Tri-Maine's promotional ads presented the health benefits and through a charity fundraiser called "Triathlete of the Year," Tri-Maine and sponsor Peak Performance provided one first-timer, Claire Depke, with free registration to the Urban Epic. Claire's training and progress were chronicled on the Tri-Maine website.

On race day, the Urban Epic festival focused on healthy activities for young children, including bike obstacle course games and a climbing wall, and included exhibits and information provided by the catering sponsor Whole Foods.

To bring greater awareness to sustainability, Tri-Maine conducted an online post-race survey of athletes that included questions about attitudes and preferences about environmental initiatives. This included questions about recycling, local/organic food, carpooling, offsets, and participating in post-event cleanup. For this last item, 55% of the 76 respondents said they'd be willing participate in post-event clean up. Tri-Maine is considering integrating this into the registration for next year's event.