Athletes can be plastic heroes

The summer is finally here and big crowds are ready to attend events in the outdoors. EcoViking triathlon have decided to take a new approach in order to make the event more sustainable, engaging the athletes and cleaning up plastic globally.

Photo by louis tricot on Unsplash

Frode Vittersø, ecoViking chief, was concerned with how events leave a negative footprint. But instead of pointing fingers, he wanted to engage the participants in positive ways; transportation in electric vehicles, waste routines during competition, using local oak wood for signage and prizes to name a few — and even better; Vittersø wanted the participants to feel positively engaged in the plastic waste problem.

The worlds first triathlon started as a bet on a pub in Hawaii amongst American marines in 1978, and the original three distances consist of 3,8km swimming, 180km biking and 42,195km running. Athletes at ecoViking triathlon are now cleaning up plastic waste globally — and they can see their impact at empower.eco. — (photo: ViSees)

This triathlon will be the worlds first competition where every athlete cleans up 5 KGs of plastic globally, just by participating, and they can later see their impact through empower.eco — real impact in a simple solution.

Every athlete receives an activation link so they can activate their gift card and see where and when their plastic waste is cleaned up (Illustration: Empower)

We are excited to be the first competition engaging athletes that will have real global impact cleaning up plastic waste, Vittersø says. We don’t have all the answers to how to solve the climate changes, but we want to take part in thinking green. Looking back, Tønsberg have a well documented history of the Vikings 1000 years ago — ecoViking wants to look 1000 years ahead and point towards a sustainable future.

Frode Vittersø, the man behind ecoViking triathlon and ViSees, posing in front of Færder municipal. 10 full distance triathlons have taken in the area the past 35 years.

The competition is already fully signed up, giving good hopes for more sustainable events ahead. Spectators can cheer and welcome the athletes at Vikingodden i Tønsberg from 14.00 on the 16. June. You can also meet crew from Empower nearby the finish line. In the weekend you can also enjoy activities in the area with Færderfestivalen.

Check out www.empower.eco and sign up to be Plastic Positive!