Our Commitment to Sustainability ♻️

With great beauty comes great responsibility. Given Leadville’s uniquely stunning panoramas and high-mountain trails, we take our responsibilities to reduce our carbon footprint and preserve our environment seriously at the Leadville Race Series. From the sparkling lakes to towering peaks, our entire crew is committed to creating sustainable event experiences for the riders and runners who visit Leadville from all over the world every year.

Here are a few ways we’re working toward reducing our ecological impact and writing a better future for our beautiful planet. As always, we’d love to hear from you, so let us know if you see something that we can do better!

1. Partnership with Cloud City Conservation (C4)

If you’ve attended any Leadville Race Series event, you’ve seen the army of green-shirt-wearing recycling heroes from Cloud City Conservation (C4). As a local non-profit, C4 is dedicated to driving conservation efforts in Leadville and Lake County, and like us, the C4 team is committed to “living in a sustainable manner so that we may pass on what we have here to future generations.” Given our shared values for sustainability, we partner with C4 to manage our recycling, compost and trash efforts at each of our LRS events.

2. “Zero Waste” at Every Corner

Every LRS race is considered a “Zero Waste” event, meaning we prioritize recycling and compost over landfill. To meet this goal, we work with our vendors to ensure that only recyclable and compostable materials are brought on site, effectively diverting more than 90% of waste from landfills at every event. 

3. Reducing T-Shirt Waste 

Since 2023, we’ve added a registration option for all of our events that allows participants to opt out of receiving a race t-shirt. Although we take pride in the uniqueness and character of our event shirts, we also understand that not everyone needs to take one home. So, to help reduce any potential waste, riders and runners can now choose whether or not to accept their piece of Leadville gear.

4. Reducing Food Waste

In a similar fashion, we began providing LRS athletes the option to opt out of post-race meals in 2023. This option helps our caterers more accurately prepare for our event weekends, which will, in turn, help reduce both food waste and excess serving materials.

5. Compostable Everything

It takes a lot of fuel to get our riders and runners across the Rocky Mountain peaks and through the finish line in downtown Leadville. From soup at Hope Pass to PB+Js at Twin Lakes, we serve up plenty of energy at our aid stations and event venues, and for that reason, we prioritize compostable products with everything we serve.

6. Goodbye Plastic Bottles

We’ve partnered with Proud Source to bring their infinitely recyclable aluminum water bottles to every Leadville Race Series event. Every athlete will have ice-cold water waiting for them at the finish line, free of plastic waste.

In addition to the items outlined above, the Life Time and Leadville Race Series team will continue to pioneer new ways to make our events less impactful to our environment and more sustainable. Thank you for joining us in our efforts to preserve our beautiful landscape and build a healthier planet in 2024 and beyond.