The World Climate Relay and our impact

by Jade Matthieson

Between 5th and 12th June the Bird Outdoors community ran, walked, cycled and hiked to raise money for climate charities as part of the World Climate Relay. 

As a community we:

• Had 36 women and NB folk join us in the challenge.
• Raised over £700 for climate charities.
• Travelled over 400km in the official seven day period.

Two things stood out to me as personal highlights whilst taking part in the relay. Firstly, was our mega community event on the Saturday, where we all came together in a multi-event extravaganza followed by a well-earned Indian buffet. It was lovely to spend a few hours moving around the Uppermill area and come back together and chat about how all the different activities went, with new stories filtering into Our Place as each group returned back. The multi-event format is something that has only occurred a few times within the community, but it is definitely something I would like to see again!

The second highlight was reading about the different personal challenges community members took on, each a ‘challenge’ in their own, personal way. Baby walking whilst on maternity leave, returning back from injury, being more consistent: each challenge told its own story. I took on the challenge of running at least 5km each day, which I am pleased to say I achieved. This was something I would have done easily a few years back, but I have recently been in a bit of a run slump after moving to a more built up area, so this challenge really forced me to avoid excuses and get out. I explored new routes and running at different times of the day, attended run clubs and experimented with treadmill running (not for me!) to keep things interesting. The motivation of running as part of a wider community, both the World Climate Relay and Bird Outdoors, really helped push me out and get through those boring treadmill minutes.

 

Little actions, larger impact

The World Climate Relay demonstrates that many people taking small actions can lead to something great. In that spirit, here are some of the small actions Bird Outdoors takes to operate sustainably and with the planet in mind:

Sustainable travel

We start 90% of our meet-ups from public transport accessible locations, encouraging our community to both take more sustainable travel options and minimise the impact of cars on the spaces we visit.

Where public transport is not a viable option we actively encourage car pooling as default, and you will regularly see ride shares being organised on our community chat.

Our impact extends beyond Bird Outdoors meet-ups. Over the years we have helped tens of women gain the confidence to choose cycling as a form of transport through workshops and advice sessions, we hope this has had a longer term impact on the number of car journeys taken by community members! 

 

Mindful partners

We aim to partner with companies who have similar ethoses to Bird Outdoors. From being one of the World Climate Relay’s partners in their inaugural year, to the smaller stuff like partnering with Hunk Print for our merch, who use only eco-friendly dyes and natural materials.

We accept that air travel to some of our more farflung trips is one of the largest sources of emissions in our community. We partner with B-Corp company Sidetracked Adventures for our trips outside the UK, who donate 1% of trip costs to climate charities and operate under the ethos of ‘Giving more back than we ever take away’.

Everyday actions

We try to minimise our impact on the environment in all the little things we do within the community. All our catered events come with vegetarian food as the default,we avoid the use of AI in our content creation and even our website runs on green energy. 

Community led

And last but definitely not least, some of our most innovative sustainability actions come from the community itself. From organising balsam bashing meet-ups, sharing sustainability events and even the small stuff like sharing a good hike from a bus stop. If you have any thoughts of how to make the community even more environmentally sustainable please do get in touch.