Climate Pledge

Transport is often a barrier to participation in rural areas, so our vehicles are a vital part of our work with young people in Moray, but EV technology hasn’t advanced enough to provide minibuses capable of towing our large equipment trailers. We also work out of an old industrial building, with little scope for renovation and improvement, but have been able to make the following changes:

• all our vehicles have been ULEZ compliant since 2024
• we have staff with Carbon Literacy certification
• our electricity is on a green tariff
• we have installed LED lights in a majority of our workshop and equipment areas
• we have timed lights in our equipment area
• our office extension and drying room were constructed with extra insulation
• our electric heaters are on timed thermostats during winter
• we plant trees in our Trees for Life Grove in our supporters’ names
• our branded cycling tops and buffs are made from recycled materials
• we have moved to a locally-based supplier for supporter and volunteer clothing
• from 2024, all our supporter and volunteer t-shirts will be made from recycled materials
• from 2024, all new goody bags will be made from recycled materials

We work with our delivery partner, Worksafe Training Systems, to deliver a wide range of first aid training courses across Moray, with all our public courses being held at Moray Sports Centre in Elgin, which is a fully accessible by public transport, and on the active travel routes for Elgin.

• we use Worksafe’s digital course option, reducing delivery emissions, plastic use and printed resources
• our whole booking system is digital
• we deliver blended training options which reduce travel/carbon emissions
• we reuse out of date first aid supplies for our training courses, and as well as donated items
• we issue digital course certificates
• out of date course paperwork is responsibly recycled

Outdoor adventure equipment is high wear and tear, as well as having manufacturer safety dates, so there’s a constant requirement to replace items, such as bike helmets and climbing ropes. However, we work hard to be responsible where possible, such as:

• repurposing out of date climbing ropes for harnessing outdoor equipment
• working with industry partners with recycling options such as wetsuits
• using our bushcraft and coasteering sessions to educate young people about the environment and climate change
• regularly encourage young people to collect litter on our sessions
• organising river cleans with local youth groups
• reusing water as often as possible when rinsing outdoor kit such as wetsuits

Since 2012, our Bike Revolution social enterprise has been:

• reducing the amount of aluminium and steel in landfill by accepting donated bikes
• reducing demand on bike production by recycling and refurbishing donated bikes
• reusing and recycling parts from donated bikes
• teaching bike maintenance to encourage a ‘repair not replace’ ethos in local cyclists
• working with local companies to responsibly recycle excess bike parts
• working with manufacturers such as Schwalbe to recycle unrepairable bike parts
• reducing travel-related carbon emissions by providing affordable bikes; increasing the number of people cycling for short journeys

Our Bike Revolution Delivery team are all keen cyclists and are reducing transport emissions and waste by:

• developing the biking skills of younger cyclists to encourage life-long habits
• providing adult cycling sessions to encourage lapsed cyclists back on bikes
• teaching young people to ride bikes safely, providing life-long skills
• delivering Bikeability training in schools to encourage active travel
• collecting unwanted bikes when our team are delivering locally
• providing Bike Dr sessions to help keep bikes serviceable for longer, avoiding the need for replacement
• reducing the amount of aluminium and steel in landfill sites by collecting unwanted bikes
• enabling more people to cycle by delivering adaptive cycling sessions

Cairngorm to Coast is our annual 100km hike and bike challenge event and something we have more control over with regards to resources and supplier choice. In March 2023, our generous event sponsors, Fred.Olsen Renewables, funded a Trees for Life Grove, enabling us to offer participants a ‘tree not tee’ option, as well as all our challenge event fundraisers, and we have made the following changes since 2019:

• we provide transport to the start, reducing the number of cars travelling through Cairngorm National Park
• our race numbers are made from recyclable plastic
• we re-use resources from year to year, such as event signage
• we use biodegradable string (instead of tie wraps) to attach race numbers to bikes
• we have reusable water containers at checkpoints and encourage participants to bring refillable water bottles
• our The Workshop at Aberfeldy event medals are made using FSC-certified wood
• fresh food supplies are purchased from Re:Store Moray, a sustainable living, refill shop in Lossiemouth
• home-made flapjack ingredients are purchased by weight from The Re:Store Moray, reducing food waste and single use plastic

and, from 2025’s event:

• we will plant a tree for every person who takes part on the day
• we will move to a locally based clothing supplier, enabling nearby collection and reducing transport delivery emissions
• our volunteer and staff t-shirts will be made from recycled materials
• participant t-shirts will be an ‘add on’ option and made from recycled materials
• event goody bags will be made from recycled materials
• hot food at Grantown on Spey will be ‘meat free’
• we will stop printing all maps and encourage digital use