(C) Leigh Rose
2025 is on the horizon, and with it some big changes are coming at little Trash Free Trails. We’re working on ourselves - with a much bigger team than ever before, our “Executive Team” (whatever) have got the capacity to work ON the organisation, rather than in it as we have been doing. With that work comes a new lens on our impact and desired outcomes. With that, comes a new framework for deciding what we do, and how we do it. All of this means that for the first time in TFT’s history, we have had to make some big decisions.
Our Associate Director Rich sat down to tell the story of what might just be our most successful project to date, and how our new lens on strategic decisions takes us where we need to go - a 2030 vision that there are times that our trails are so cared for that there are times when we run, ride or roam without encountering single-use pollution.
(C) Rich Baybutt
In order to tell you where we’re going, you need to understand where we’ve been - so i’ll keep it sweet with a bit of TFT Approved Storytelling…
Back in 2020 when I joined TFT, one of the many ideas floating around was some sort of sustainable events accreditation scheme. Totally new to the “industry”, and totally alien to the eNGO space, I initially thought this was a bit of a non-starter, as surely, surely there must be something out there for outdoor events to accredit themselves internally, rather than having to bring an external body in.
Turns out, there wasn’t!
So, we worked with Dept 39 MTB club out of Bude, Cornwall to come up with our first initiative to address the impact of mtb race events on the trails and wild places that host them. If you’re really bored, check it out here. Whilst this worked for Dept 39, it needed a bit of work to be something that could be rolled out to the entirety of the outdoor race event industry. So it’s a good job we’ve got people like Ali on the A-TEAM! As the heart and soul of our organisation, the trust we have in these guys to deliver our work is paramount, and we couldn’t think of anyone better than Ali to work on this, to turn it into something that might be attractive to big event organisers. And we did just that, with 2 of the biggest names on the scene - Red Bull and the Enduro Sports Organisation. The rest is history, and you can read all about that from the horses (Ali’s) mouth in the story he wrote here.
(C) Leigh Rose
So what’s happening? I hear you ask… Well, for the first time we’re going to stop doing something. I know, right?!
I referenced my inexperience earlier on here. But, whilst we went ahead with a sustainable events accreditation scheme, and as Ali said in his blog, we’re not event organisers, and we’re not even sustainability experts. So, it wasn’t really our job to create such a scheme, with the intention for it to become industry standard. In te absence of something like this though, and an apparent lack of intention from the industry we went for it.
(C) Rich BAybutt
Since then, we’ve spoken to thousands of people as part of TFT Approved Platinum presence at events. We’ve removed over 10,000 pieces of single-use pollution from race event venues across the UK and Europe. More than 50 events have taken part in the scheme, and awarded their own level of accreditation independent of any support. It was included in regional event guidance from the Morcambe Bay Partnership, and the Scottish Borders Council. Without TFT Approved, we might not be working with Red Bull or Ourea Events, we wouldn’t have been to Finale Ligure, we wouldn’t even be thinking about TFT Italia, and we wouldn’t have had all of those opportunities to speak to all of you lovely people in the places we love the most.
(C) Sam Dugon
But, so what?! What has been the point of all of that? Well, here’s a few highlights of the impact and outcomes that we have contributed to with TFT Approved, and our presence at outdoor events over the last couple of years.
The UCI Downhill races do not use race tape any more, at any of their events. We cannot claim this to be totally due to our influence of course, but since the management of the series was taken over by our friends at ESO / Warner Bros - the very same team that helped us develop TFT Approved, there is no tape to be seen at their races.
The Glentress XCO / XCM event was TFT Approved Platinum, managed by the very same team, and was the most sustainable event of the entire World Championships. This is no mean feat, as the 2023 Cycling world Champs was the largest, most attend cycling event the world has ever seen.
(C) Rich Baybutt
For us, we noticed a paradigm shift from the main question from event attendees being “what is Trash Free Trails, what do you do?” to something more like “oh cool, you guys are here as well”. That shift in awareness has been huge in the development of our little organisation, and fundamental in helping us progress towards our mission.
Finally, it inspired regulatory governing bodies to create their own version. Recently, our esteemed comrades at British Cycling published their very own “Sustainable Events Guidance” - the similarities between this and TFT Approved are plain for all to see.
And with that, we’ve decided to let it lie. TFT Approved has done it’s job, as far as we’re concerned. Little old TFT, with just about enough money and time to keep food in our pets bowls (yes that comes first) created a sustainable events guidance that was adopted by some of the biggest players in the game with great success. It’s time, now for the regulators to do their job and adopt something similar as policy.
(C) Sam Dugon
Meanwhile, we’ll still be going to race events - speaking to thousands of you about the mission and working with you to protect the places you love. But we’re not stopping there. As part of that presence, we’ll work with the events that we;re attending to give something back to the communities they rely to deliver their events - thanks for the nudge on that BC - it’s the only bit we missed from our little project that you so kindly built on for your own guidance.
We’ll get on with that, shall we?!
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