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Buxton water bottles at the Virgin Money London Marathon

Sustainability

Inspiring innovation in event sustainability

As well as the Virgin Money London Marathon, we (London Marathon Events) organise 13 other world-class mass participation events each year that focus, not only on running, but cycling and swimming too.

We are proud to lead the way in showing the power of mass participation sport as a force for good, and of the hugely positive effects our events have had on millions of people since the first London Marathon in 1981. We now want to lead the way in event sustainability too...

Delivering on our environmental policy

Our events have a proven track record in inspiring activity, improving physical and mental health and bringing communities together – raising millions of pounds for charities and supporting local businesses in the process.

We want to ensure we also inspire and deliver innovation in mass participation event sustainability – in fact, this has become one of the eight company pillars that guide everything we do. To find out more, read our environmental policy.

A runner carries her drinks in a bottle belt at the Virgin Money London Marathon

Leaving The Right Impression

Our first-ever environmental report, Leaving the Right Impression, sets out the waste, emissions and products produced and used across all of our events, and at our headquarters and warehouse, in 2019. We tried a number of initiatives to improve the environmental impact of the Virgin Money London Marathon and the results can also be found in the report.

We are excited about what we and our partners have achieved, but know there is still much more to do, and this work will continue long into the future.

Download Environmental Report (PDF)

Our sustainability targets for 2020/2021

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most of our 2020 events have not taken place in the way we expected at the start of the year, but we have worked hard to achieve the sustainability targets we set and corresponding actions as best we can.

We have already achieved one of our targets and implemented many of the actions at The Vitality Big Half in March 2020. We will update you on our progress in our 2020 environmental report.

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