At Trail Running Scotland we understand that the natural environment in which we run is a fundamental part of why we love this sport. The enjoyment of any run is enhanced by taking in the natural beauty of an ancient pine forest or the surprise of seeing Red Squirrel or Capercaillie.
We believe that connection with our landscape and natural history fosters a greater appreciation of our environment and therefore our impact upon it, not just when we are out on the trail but in the rest of our lives. Getting out into the forests and mountains and learning more about them whilst enjoying the health and wellbeing of activity is hugely important to reducing our individual impact on the planet.
At Trail Running Scotland we encourage you to also consider the potential impact of our holidays and courses, and for us all to do what we can so that every course has as positive a footprint as possible.
Travel
The biggest impact of our desire to explore and enjoy our country is from our travel. Where possible we would ask you to consider using the train or other public transport. On a journey from Edinburgh to one of our Aviemore courses this would save 30kg of CO2 compared with driving.
Alternatively please try to car share, you could arrange this with other course participants on our Facebook Community page.
To try to offset the impact of our courses we set up or environmental levy in 2021. £1 from every course fee is donated to the levy.
Between April 2021 and 2023 we donated a total of £420 to the Cairngorms Trust towards path maintenance or new access projects.
From April 2023 our new project to support is the excellent new "it's up to us" initiative from Mountaineering Scotland and the Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland. Who have come together to highlight the desperate need for long term public funding for upland path projects. For 2023-2024 we have donated £119
Travel is typically the largest source of emissions from our events. We’re working with the charity onboard.earth (Formerly ecolibrium) to tackle these impacts, and giving you the option to balance unavoidable emissions through their climate solutions programmes. When booking you will be given the option of adding a small donation to balance your carbon, this will be used to support the work of the Trees+ project.
In 2023 course participants donated £73.50 to balance their travel.
We are also balancing our carbon from our driving miles associated with our courses. For 2018-2024 this has amounted to 10.4 tonnes of CO2 which we have balanced with total donations of £261.37
Trail Running Scotland Ltd. Company registration number SC786843