Commitment to Sustainability

Goal 1: Decrease Carbon Footprint

• Increase diversion of waste to 80% across all Leadville Race Series Events.
• Partnership with Eco Products provides compostable cups, plates, and silverware for use across all events and expos.
• Partnership with HydraPak provides reusable cups for use at all aid stations.

Goal 2: Create Opportunities For Sustainable Conduct

• Offer sustainable opportunities for athletes throughout their race experience:
  • T-Shirt Opt Out
  • Post-race meal Opt Out
  • Order-ahead local food options
  • Volunteer waste sorting
  • Recycling opportunities for unwanted gear
  • Public transportation to event venues
• Enforce DNF policy for unwanted conduct. Prohibited conduct includes unsportsmanlike actions, trespassing, destruction of property, littering, and public urination or defecation. This policy applies to all athletes, as well as their crews and spectators.

Goal 3: Promote A Culture Of Sustainability

• Effectively communicate sustainability initiatives, goals, and progress.
• Promote sustainable offerings for athletes.
• Use our scope of influence to promote sustainable practices in the community and outdoor recreation industry as a whole.

Do Leadville Right

• The Leadville Race Series will directly hold and mirror the 7 principles already established and in place via the US Forest Service. Learn more here:
  • Learn how to do Leadville Twin Lakes right
  • Care for Colorado Leave No Trace Principles

Plan Ahead and Prepare 

• Know the Race Course and Terrain
  • Familiarize yourself with the race route, including water sources, aid stations, and trail conditions. 
  • This allows you to plan where to hydrate, where waste disposal is available, and where to be most cautious about minimizing your impact on the environment.
• Pack Accordingly
  • Bring only what you need for the race (hydration packs, snacks, gear) to reduce waste. 
  • Avoid excessive packaging and choose eco-friendly items, such as reusable water bottles and biodegradable products.
• No Littering
  • Keep our trails clean! 
  • Be prepared to deposit waste at Zero Waste Stations throughout the course.

Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces

• Camping Options
  • Camping options range from dispersed camping to designated campgrounds, even full-service RV parks. 
  • Colorado Mountain College is offering camping spots for Silver Rush and 100 MTB/10k weekends. Visit the event pages for details. 
  • Designated camping spots and full-service RV parks fill up when the temperatures warm up, so make your reservation ahead of time by booking online. 
• Be Self Reliant
  • Plan to be entirely self-reliant as services and facilities such as trash cans and trash removal, tables, fire pits and toilets are not provided. 
  • You can always stop at the Visitor Center to get your pet waste bags.

Dispose of Waste Properly  

• Use Portapotties
  • Racers, crews and spectators are required to use the on-site porta potties. Do not ‘go’ in the backcountry.
• In an Emergency
  • Bring a shovel for an emergency situation and dig a 6 inch hole at least 200 feet from water to keep our trails and streams clean.
• There are penalties for runners and crew members who fail to follow these guidelines.

Leave What You Find

• Respect Historic Landmarks
  • Please respect the natural environment and historic landmarks along the course and at all aid stations.

Minimize Campfire Impacts

• Campfire Safety 101
  • Build the perfect Colorado campfire — and avoid sparking a wildfire — by first checking if campfires are allowed in the area. Check Lake County Fire Restriction information here. 
  • Keep your fire small, manageable, and never leave it unattended.
  • When it’s time to put it out, douse it completely and ensure the embers are cold to the touch before walking away.
• Keep It Local: Firewood Matters
  • Buy or gather firewood locally. ACE Hardware and Big R in Leadville both sell firewood. Not only does it save valuable space in your car, but it also helps prevent the spread of invasive pests like the destructive pine beetle. 
  • Bringing in wood from other areas can introduce harmful species to Colorado’s forests.
• Smoke Responsibly
  • Use extra caution when smoking. Colorado’s dry climate makes it easy for a single discarded butt to spark a wildfire.
  • Always fully extinguish smoking materials and dispose of them properly.

Respect Wildlife 

• Keep your Distance
  • Colorado is home to an incredible variety of wildlife. For their safety and yours, always keep a respectful distance between yourself (and your dog) and any wild animals. 
  • Not sure how far is far enough? Try the thumb test: if you can cover the entire animal with your outstretched thumb, you’re good.
• Store your Food
  • You’re not the only one who loves the smell of bacon! Store all food, trash, and scented items in bear-proof containers, lockers, or secured vehicles. 
  • Proper storage keeps you safe and protects wildlife from harmful behavior changes. Let’s all do our part to keep Colorado wild and thriving.

Be Considerate of Other Visitors 

• Be respectful of other visitors and residents. Leadville is home to many people, so please be mindful of their space. 
• Do not trespass or urinate in yards or public property and ensure your crews are courteous and considerate towards local residents.

Zero Waste at Every Corner 

Every LRS race is considered a “Zero Waste” event, meaning we prioritize recycling and composting over the landfill whenever possible. These efforts don’t just reduce the amount of trash on our trails- they’re also a key step in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and combating the impacts of climate change. 

To meet this goal, we:

• Work with our vendors to ensure that only recyclable and compostable materials are brought on site, effectively diverting a significant amount of waste from landfills at every event. 
• We prioritize compostable products with everything we serve. We partner with ECOproducts to ensure all dishware is BPI certified compostable.
• All our races are fully cupless. We’ve partnered with HydraPak to provide reusable cups for use at all aid stations.
• 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 choose whether or not to accept their piece of Leadville gear.

C4 Zero Waste staff and volunteers are on hand at all aid stations to help participants, crews and spectators sort their waste into designated bins: trash, compost, recycling, and Terracycle nutrition wrappers. Not sure where to put something? Ask a Zero Waste volunteer!

These efforts have significantly reduced the environmental impact of the Race Series. In 2024, the C4 Zero Waste team collected 15,300 pounds (over 7 tons!) of waste from race series aid stations. More than 75% of that was diverted away from local landfills with 5,600 pounds being composted and another 5,100 pounds recycled. 

• Adhere to the Lake County Recycling guidelines while visiting Leadville. Sort all glass, aluminum, cardboard and clean plastics #1 and #2. No lids are accepted on bottles. Bring sorted recycling directly to the Lake County Recycling Center and Landfill. There is no single stream recycling in Lake County and contamination is the number one reason recycling ends up in our local landfill.
• C4 collaborates with several waste management partners to process  composting and recycling of event waste. Compost is sent to Elements Compost in Salida, recycling is processed by a single-stream facility in Colorado Springs, and nutrition wrappers are handled by Terracycle in New Jersey.

Eat Local

• Do your meal planning ahead of time. Event weekends can be a strain on the local grocery store.
• 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 helps reduce both food waste and excess serving materials.
• We encourage your crews and spectators to bring food scraps to the Cloud City Farm for composting during the summer to promote healthy soils and local food. Sign up here.

Become a Zero Waste Volunteer 

• Volunteer at our events with the C4 team to support our Zero Waste initiative.

Gear Donation

• Donate your new or gently used running gear to the Legacy Foundation’s Gear For Good program during any of the Leadville Race Series event expos this summer.
• Proceeds from the consignment of these items will support Leadville Trail 100 Scholarships and the Legacy Grants program. Thank you to Community Threads for making this possible!

Trail Stewardship

• Help take care of our beautiful trail system through trail stewardship volunteer work. Volunteer with: 
  • Friends of Lake County
  • Friends of Twin Lakes
  • Cloud City Wheelers

Public Transportation

• Use event shuttles to reduce your environmental footprint and protect our fragile mountain ecosystems.
• Lake County Transit is Leadville’s new FREE transit route that can take you and your crew around town.
• If coming from the Denver Airport, you can use the Summit Express or the Peak 1 Express Shuttle to get to the Frisco transfer station and the Lake County Link bus to get from the Frisco Transfer station to Leadville.

Carpooling

• Carpool whenever possible with other members of the Leadville Family.
• Together we can reduce transportation-related emissions from our events.

Partnership with Cloud City Conservation Center (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 Center (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.