Introducing the R4W Way…

Ever been to a Run 4 Wales (R4W) event where you thought we could be doing more to protect the environment of the community we were in? Or perhaps you’d like to see a more diverse range of people taking part?

The pandemic gave us an opportunity to reflect on how we approach event delivery. From environment to employment and disability to diversity, we’ve assessed the way we operate and discussed ways we can better ourselves.

Established in 2012, we’ve had a fantastic decade of delivering events in Wales and generating funds for grassroots sport and other community projects – but now our attention is turning to our goals over the next 10 years!

We’re now working hard to improve our social goals, from building a more equal and diverse staff team, to delivering events that are open to all.

As well as those social improvements, we are continuing where we left off with our environmental objectives. These short and long-term objectives essentially give us direction to delivering mass participation events with a minimal impact on the environment we operate in.

Then, we have our governance aims. This world revolves around leadership, our board of directors, strategy and future-proofing our decision making.

Our ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) approach to events is centred around Wales’ Wellbeing of Future Generations Act, which aims to improve social, cultural, environmental and economic wellbeing in Wales.

We’re also aligning our own ambitions to the 17 Global Goals for sustainable development, set up by the United Nations in 2015.

Efforts to adapt our new ‘R4W Way’ will be a marathon and not a sprint, and we want to make sure the changes we make are the right ones and at the right time.

We’re in the middle of establishing an ESG Action Plan, that will define short- and long-term ambitions. The big-picture goals and actions will be published, so our runners, spectators and volunteers can see what we’re doing to become less impactful on the environment and more socially aware.