We’re revealing the Finalists in each of the Singletrack Reader Awards 2021 categories. Thanks to all of you for your nominations, and to our awards sponsors, Kona Bicycles. Here’s who made the cut for the Best UK Environmental Initiative.
This is about the ground beyond our trails. Whether it’s care for the wildlife, awareness of our impact on the environment, keeping bikes out of the bin, or encouraging less impactful access to trails, we want to hear about who is making it happen.
Cargodale
At the start of the first lockdown, there was a scramble by many to access online food deliveries. Seeing that local businesses were left out, that many couldn’t get delivery slots, and that all these deliveries were going to create a lot of traffic, Beate Kubitz hired a cargo bike and set about seeing how many local deliveries she could manage. That first step has grown into a fleet of cargo bikes that has covered over 5000 miles and made over 2,500 deliveries, keeping vans off the road and generating interest in cargo bikes as a viable form of transport in the area.
Lakes Litter Tribe
Inspired by the work of Trash Free Trails, and motivated by seeing litter out and about during lockdown, the Lakes Litter Tribe started as a group of friends and has grown to be a virtual social media army of litter pickers who share their finds and efforts on Instagram. Boosted by each others’ presence, they’ve ventured far and wide into the Lake District to clean up paths and streams – and along the way they’ve even discovered the joy of mountain biking.
Trash Free Trails
Trash Free Trails is on a mission to get us to clean up our environment at source. As well as encouraging us to do clean ups, they track the waste that’s found, and then do their best to encourage companies and brands to tackle it at source. They’ve already persuaded Red Bull to collaborate inimproving consumer awareness of litter, since they found that Red Bull cans were one of the top three items found, along with Lucozade and Coca-Cola. Supported by a network of ambassadors and many volunteers, they’re clearing our trails of trash, encouraging purposeful adventure, and raising awareness of the environment that we’re all out there exploring. With clear goals to see demonstrable results and evidence based targeting of efforts, they’re hoping to eventually see such a change in behaviour and awareness that it won’t need them at the centre to coordinate it all. But for now, they’re there, fighting the corner for our countryside against our tide of rubbish.
To help you learn more about these three great finalists, we’ve got this podcast for you, featuring an interview with a representative from each of them.
Help us make our podcasts even better
It’s all down to you, the public, to decide who wins each category – there’s no funny business or back room cheques. So enjoy our coverage of the finalists, and be sure to vote for your favourites. Voting will open on 18th October, and close on 1st November.
