Since 2015, Adidas, together with Parley, launched the Run for the Oceans project, inviting runners from all over the world to join a particular race. Adidas counts through its app the distance covered by all the subscribers, and collects plastic material equivalent to 10 bottles for every kilometer they run to a maximum of 250.000kg of waste, and uses it to produce special models of sneakers, engaging everyone in contributing to save the oceans and reusing the collected trash.
Objectives:
- To raise awareness about oceans environmental protection
- To foster healthy lifestyle and promote running providing an incentive for global citizenship
- To clean up oceans engaging citizens through sport activities
- To create a community of runners who care about environmental sustainability
Description:
Run 4 the Oceans is an initiative launched by Adidas with the support of Parley, that creates a special link between citizens/runners and environmental action. The participants are invited to run (and count their performances through the Adidas Running app) in order to contribute to the collection of plastic materials from the Oceans, implemented by the organizers of the competition following a specific algohoritm: for every km a person runs, the equivalent in plastic of 10 bottles is removed and used to contribute to the creation of new shoes, enforcing reusing of materials and cleaning oceans actions at the same time.
The activity is very successful and it’s going on since 2015 with the participation of thousands of people all over the world, united by the passion of running and the will to give upport to this important cause.
Impact and Results:
The activity is very useful as it can be done virtually by everyone, which can contribute with own rhythm, and does not foresee a real ending of the race. All it’s needed is a phone or other device capable of counting the running kilometres, and you are in the competition.
The project involves around 3 million runners from all over the globe that ran for over 25 million kilometres.
During the first 6 years of the Run for the Oceans initiative, over 30 millions pairs of shoes were produced using Parley Ocean Plastic, a special material created using the plastic waste collected.
In 2019, 92 schools took part in the project, becoming then educational hubs and plastic collection points, thus contributing to the education of over 70.000 kids and families and spreading the important concepts of ocean protection even more for the new generations.
The initiative lead to the creation of the Adidas social responsibility action „Move for the Planet”, involving runners in being active, resulting in donations from the company to environmental protection projects and sustainable sport structures.
Conclusions and Suggestions for Youth Workers:
The activity is done by a big multinational and it’s clear that in this magnitude it requires a lot of efforts on publicity, branding, and involvement of a lot of people that already are using apps and are active.
We can look at it as a way to motivate people to move, and/or to be active for a cause. Youth workers can replicate the activity on a local level in smaller scale, putting prizes for runners, bikers, swimmers, or other activities (i.e. score goals for sustainability, or other), and involve local sponsors in donating depending on the results reached by who is active in the initiative.
Also, the activity can be used as inspiration to promote use of alternative recyclable or reused materials for sport equipment.
Links for reference: https://parley.tv/initiatives/run-for-the-oceans
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