Back in November, we were lucky enough to spend some time with endurance runner Susie Chan who has lent her support to our environmentally friendly product range, including two of very own materials Enviroflag™ and Envirobanner™.

We spent some time outdoors with Susie in National Trust’s Devil’s Punch Bowl, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Surrey and one of Susie’s regular running spots where we set up some of our environmentally friendly branding products for Susie to trial in a race format. Despite the gloomy forecast, the weather was on our side and our team were able to set up a wide range of our environmentally friendly products to capture some stunning shots of these products. With our environmentally friendly product range continuing to expand, we wanted to showcase these materials and products as you may see them in an ultra race or trail run to highlight their quality and show that choosing environmentally friendly options doesn’t mean a compromise in quality. Enviroflag and Envirobanner have been researched and manufactured by our team of event branding experts after months of working closely to bring our clients the best in environmentally friendly branding alternatives.

We used our own Enviroflag material to print our feather flags, festival flags, backpack flag and event arch. Enviroflag is our revolutionary material, printed in the UK, that is made from recycled plastic items, such as single-use PET plastic bottles and industrial polyester waste, which has been fragmented down in to tiny chips that are melted in to liquid plastic and spun into yarn that is then knitted to form the material. Enviroflag is an environmentally friendly alternative to knitted polyester and, as well as being kinder to the environment with 75% less emissions created during it’s production process compared to that of virgin polyester, it has the same durability, strength and versatility as well as excellent print quality.

Susie explained one of the reasons she chose to work with us was the environmental angle of the work we do, “People tend to take a lot of those things for granted and there’s an assumption that it’s already happening – it’s great there’s someone out there offering it and everybody should be using it as far as I’m concerned!”.

We also produced various sizes of banners using Envirobanner, our own environmentally friendly, PVC free material that is an ideal alternative to PVC for banners and backdrops. Envirobanner is lightweight and offers excellent quality print that’s perfect for use indoors or outdoors.

When Susie is not running in her local countryside she runs races all over the world, from 1 mile to 100 miles and has taken part in some of the toughest ultra-marathons and endurance races as well as numerous shorter distance events. Susie said of her experiences with some of the world’s most famous marathons and ultra runs that they are starting to take steps to reduce their environmental impact, “There has been a noticeable shift towards sustainability recently and it is starting to become more of the norm. Some races are starting to adopt more innovative plastic-free methods at their water stations and one event this year had water-filled capsules made entirely from seaweed. Changes like this are very welcome and definitely noted by participants.”

As well as running some of the word’s most exciting endurance races, Susie is an inspiring speaker and can often be found talking about running in interviews, radio and magazines, as well as appearing on television and contributing to fitness magazines, podcasts and websites. Susie also regularly commentates at races and explained that in her experience of commentating, good branding can have a huge impact on the atmosphere, “I think the branding really adds a professional feel to the event; it makes a difference. From my experience the branding can change the feel of a race.” 

Susie also presents at industry-specific events and will be kicking off 2020 as one of the main presenters at the National Running Show, taking place on 25th & 26th January. The first day of the show culminates in the Networking Dinner, a dedicated B2B event where those in the running industry can get together to share their insight and experiences, discuss current trends in the running market and look at future developments. Many of the exhibitors, partners and sponsors already confirmed for The National Running Show are expected to close a day of consumer focus with this inspirational business opportunity amongst peers and like-minded industry experts.

Find out more about our environmentally friendly event branding products here or click to view our brochure to find out more about our materials and their uses. For tickets to the National running Show Networking Dinner, please click here.