Compensating for the CO₂e footprint of the 2025 marathon, a new Rimi Riga Marathon forest has been planted!
15 April 2025Over the weekend in the “Riga Forests” territory near Riga, Ogre municipality, 7000 pine trees were planted, forming a new forest cover on a 2 hectare area and preemptively offsetting a portion of the CO₂e footprint generated by the 2025 marathon.
Forest planting isn’t the only sustainability activity of the Rimi Riga Marathon. To help reduce the CO₂ footprint, participants have already taken part in plogging. They will also be able to use public transport for free and exchange their bib numbers for spruce trees.
Foto: Renārs Koris
Thanks to the sustainability program “Run for Future by Neste,” the Rimi Riga Marathon in 2022 became the first event in the history of Baltic popular sports and mass events to initiate the tradition of calculating and offsetting the CO₂ footprint of the Rimi Riga Marathon in Riga, actively involving the running community in education.
Over the weekend, the forest planted in the Ogre municipality is the first practical step to prematurely offset the carbon footprint generated by the 2025 marathon. 7000 pine trees were planted on a 2-hectare agricultural land area.
Foto: Renārs Koris
This year, the new forest has been created in a special place – the territory of our environmental education center, EkVidO, where a learning environment has been developed for both children and adults. It is especially symbolic that these pine trees were planted by runners – people who stand for sustainability and a healthy lifestyle. Initiatives like this help us all think long-term and adopt a more responsible attitude toward the environment.
Anita Skudra
Director of the Board of Ltd. Rīgas Meži
Foto: Renārs Koris
We’ve also provided the opportunity for each participant to individually compensate their footprint when registering for the Rimi Riga Marathon. In 2025, 527 participants have already compensated their individual footprints upon registration, with some companies even offsetting the carbon footprint of all their employees participating in the marathon. We encourage everyone to be responsible and environmentally friendly both in everyday life and during the marathon, and to compensate for their footprint themselves through the registration system. It is possible to compensate for your individual footprint in your marathon profile even if the participant has already registered for the marathon.
Although the Rimi Riga Marathon’s CO₂ footprint is tiny on a global scale, by calculating and offsetting the carbon footprint of the event and its participants, we aim to encourage other events, projects, as well as companies in Riga and across Latvia, to focus on identifying, reducing, and compensating their own carbon emissions.
Aigars Nords
Director of the Rimi Riga Marathon Organizing Team
Free public transport for participants
In 2025, organizers will focus on a range of sustainability aspects in event organization and participant communication.
As part of the Elektrum Energetic Trainings held every Sunday morning in Mežaparks, a special plogging session took place on April 6 in collaboration with Rīgas Meži, combining running with garbage collection. Participants helped make Mežaparks a cleaner place.
In support of sustainability, Riga City Council and the marathon organisers have agreed that for the first time in the history of the marathon, any participant will be able to take public transport in Riga to the start and after the start during the marathon weekend for free by showing their Rimi Riga Marathon number. Already now 28% of marathon participants arrive at the start by public transport and 46% walk to the start.
Also on marathon day, May 18, at the Neste tent on Dome Square, participants can exchange their bib numbers, brooches, and bags for spruce trees. The collected materials will be sorted, crushed, and used for thermal energy production.
The 2024 Rimi Riga Marathon has offset its carbon footprint fivefold. With the number of international participants increasing by more than 60%, the carbon footprint of the 2024 Rimi Riga Marathon has grown 1.5 times, reaching 342 CO₂e tons.
