By Heidi Crevison Souder, PhD
If you’ve participated in a Run Fest, you probably know that social responsibility is an important part of who we are. Sustainability is a core element of Run Fest’s mission, but what exactly is sustainability? It probably means different things to different people, but the definition of sustainability means using natural resources to meet our needs today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. We don’t need to save natural resources for posterity, but we must manage them in a way so we can keep using them in the future! Natural resources, like water and food, are obviously important to all of us, but landfill space for solid waste is already half full in the United States. About 58% of what ends up in a landfill is actually compostable (yard waste, food, and paper). As you already know, Run Fest makes a great deal of effort to manage our solid waste footprint by the “Reduce-Reuse-Recycle” method. This is the number one recommendation for reducing plastic in our oceans and the number one recommendation for conserving landfill space. We have several local partners helping us achieve greatness, but sustainability takes a village. And we think that St. Pete is a really awesome village! Want to learn more about Run Fest’s sustainability efforts? Stay tuned!