It's Green July

Sustainability and climate change are year-round challenges to tackle, but as it's Plastic Free July®, we thought we would make this month Green July, and take the opportunity to celebrate how far we've come but also how we can keep working together for a better, greener future.

GoodGym's Sustainability Advisory Group is made up of stakeholders such as GoodGymers, area activators, run leaders, TaskForce and the central team. They meet up quarterly, with their last session only last month.

With Green July now upon us, we've been able to use their knowledge and passion for the environment to come up with some GoodGym Top Green Tips to keep our ways as planet-friendly as possible.

Green July Top Tips

🌍 Practice is better than perfect. If everyone did little things a lot, we would be taking great strides to helping the environment. So don't feel that your small acts don't add up. Household recycling, walking instead of grabbing a cab or mending a running top all add up to big impact. Keep going!

🌍 Awareness events. Yes, whilst we do care about the planet everyday, it's also great to check out new initiatives and awareness days to keep educated on the things that could make a difference. Think Plastic Free July or #NoMowMay (We've done some of this for you below).

🌍 Water! We all need it, but how you get it can make a big dent. Utilise reusable drinks bottles during sessions (and beyond) by taking advantage of water fountains and free top up points. Use an app like ReFill to locate your nearest source.

🌍 Active transport. If you're walking, running or cycling to sessions, then you're already doing it. But why not continue to do this more and more outside of GoodGym time?

🌍 Reponsible disposal Carry on disposing of waste on sessions in designated bins wherever possible.

🌍 Opportunities and concerns Keep feeding back to the central team any potential solutions to sustainability issues when on GoodGym sessions.

🌍 Sustainability advisory board Want to take your passion of sustainability up a level? Why not register your interest in joining the GoodGym sustainability advisory board. Drop Liv an email at liv@goodgym.org

🌍 Up your good deeds Why not increase your good deeds whilst other GoodGymers are on their holidays?

Plastic Free July®

The Plastic Free Foundation says "Plastic Free July® is a global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution – so we can have cleaner streets, oceans, and beautiful communities. Will you be part of Plastic Free July by choosing to refuse single-use plastics?" Read more here.

Click here to download your Plastic Free July® challenge

Running shoes worn out?

Not sure when it's the right time to replace your running shoes? Up & Running have provided a guide to help people decide when is best to replace their shoes. Once destined for landfill, you can then use some great recycling initiatives and organisations like ReRun Clothing or Recycle My Gear.

Find out here if your shoes are worn out and in need of replacing

Recycle My Gear

Once decided if your kit is unsalvageable, Recycle My Gear is an initiative by retailer Runners Need. They work with SOEX, the largest clothing re-wear and recycle company in the world and provide textile collection, sorting, reuse, recycling and a redistribution. You can find out more here

Tiny Forests

We reported in March how GoodGym Barnet had begun their partnership with Tiny Forests, a movement aimed to "reconnect people with nature, enhance wellbeing, mitigate the impacts of climate change and provide nature-rich habitat patches to support urban wildlife".

We hope to grow our relationship with Tiny Forests and work with them across more GoodGym areas.

See our GoodGym Barnet X Tiny Forest story here

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