Cardiff University collaborates with Cardiff Half on sustainability
Cardiff University and the Principality Cardiff Half Marathon have come together to collaborate on sustainable initiatives for this year’s event.
A team of marketing students from Cardiff University have been working hard behind the scenes on two digital marketing campaigns looking at plastic bottle usage and sustainable travel options.
‘A steer to sustainable travel’ looked at issues surrounding the carbon footprint of the event, with runners travelling to the Cardiff Half from across the globe.
Through an online survey targeting past and present participants, the students were able to understand runners’ travel behaviours and sustainability attitudes. They discovered that convenience, cost and time were the key influencing factors.
The focus of this project was to look at car-sharing as a flexible, and affordable, alternative that can reduce vehicle emissions and help with carbon offsetting.
The second project, ‘A message in a bottle’, focused on the issue of plastic bottle usage and the importance of recycling at the event.
It looked at trying to tackle the improper disposal of plastic bottles in general waste bins and ensuring they are emptied before being binned to increase the current recycling rate of 95% to 96%.
Matt Newman, Chief Executive at event organiser Run 4 Wales, commented: “Run 4 Wales is passionate about trying to balance the impact that hosting major events has on the environment. One of our main goals within our environmental policy and Green Action Plan is to create more sustainable travel options for our participants and ensuring we’re maintaining consistently high recycling rates.
“The work that has been done by the students at Cardiff University is fantastic and we hope it will help us with our mission to get more of our participants making sustainable choices.
“I wanted to extend thanks to Cardiff University and all those who have taken the time to engage in the surveys.”
Keep an eye out on our socials and via our newsletter to discover the results of the research as race day approaches.
