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Concept

ECOTRAIL® INTERNATIONAL, AN ECO-RESPONSIBLE TRAIL RUNNING CIRCUIT

EcoTrail® races offer great trail running courses and allow participants to (re)discover a city and its region while respecting the environment and raising awareness about the impact each runner has on the environment. The strength of this concept lies in its ability to mix trail running with the discovery of emblematic places with rich cultural and natural heritages, and in an organization relying strongly on local actors.

Eco-responsibility, equity, solidarity, accessibility and conviviality have remained at the heart of the project since its creation, giving a unique DNA to each EcoTrail®.

Since the first EcoTrail® in Paris in 2008, the EcoTrail® family has kept on growing around the world. Today, runners can choose among 13 destinations: 10 in Europe, 2 in Asia and 1 in the Middle-East, with Saudi-Arabia welcoming its first EcoTrail® in 2020.

 

ECO-REPONSIBILITY

The concept behind EcoTrail® is simple: use the natural trails of urban areas to offer various race distances to runners and help them understand the importance of protecting natural environments. A concerning issue that keeps on increasing.

Therefore, each EcoTrail® implements various initiatives in order to protect the environment, such as: 

  • Inciting participants to use sustainable transports, by providing transport tickets, group transport services etc.
  • Highlighting local and natural heritages, by encouraging the rehabilitation of cultural sites, designing courses in emblematic and historical places etc;
  • Reducing the environmental impact, by reducing and sorting waste, deploying eco-actors to clean the courses, using sustainable products, etc
  • Providing balanced products at refreshment posts, by using local and seasonal products first and redistributing food excess to local associations, etc.
  • Educating trail runners on eco-responsibility, by raising awareness about sustainable development, providing individual waste disposal bags, signing an ethical charter, using signage that encourages eco-responsibility, etc.

 

 

VALUES AT THE HEART OF THE PROJECT

4 values are at the heart of the EcoTrail project:

ECO-RESPONSIBILITY 

SOLIDARITY 

ACCESSIBILITY

CONVIVIALITY

 

ECO-RESPONSIBILITY:  Our ambition is to raise awareness among participants on the importance of protecting the environment through practicing their sport.

SOLIDARITY: Each EcoTrail supports local associations through fund raising efforts and through the implication of volunteers as well as cultural sites rehabilitation.

ACCESSIBILITY: The EcoTrail® is an eco-citizen and universal project accessible to all.

CONVIVIALITY: Our discipline is deeply tied to the values of conviviality and mutual assistance between runners.