CARBON AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTRIBUTION
GLOBAL CARBON MITIGATION STRATEGY
As part of our collaboration with Protect Our Winters on mobility challenges, we structured a **carbon mitigation **approach in June 2025. Inspired by the Paris Agreement, it stands on two inseparable pillars:
• Reduce, our absolute priority: taking direct action against the event’s CO2 emissions, which mostly stem from participant and visitor travel. • Contribute collectively, going beyond our event: supporting the global climate transition.
Every human activity—whether eating, housing, traveling, or leisure—consumes energy and releases greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere. While carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most well-known, other gases (such as methane or nitrous oxide) also contribute to global warming and the major disruptions affecting our ecosystems. To simplify calculations, "carbon emission" (or CO2 equivalent) is used as a universal reference unit to quantify the combined impact of all these gases.
Like any activity, a sporting event is no exception: from manufacturing race bibs to emergency transport, including logistics, aid stations, and attendee travel, every step requires resources and energy (often fossil fuels) that release "carbon emissions."
In the context of a major trail running event like the HOKA UTMB Mont-Blanc, the main impact is linked to the travel of people coming to and leaving the event.
Other emission sources must also be taken into account: on-site transport, signage, logistics, waste generation and management, textile manufacturing, food production for aid stations, accommodation, etc.
You cannot effectively manage what you do not know.
Measuring our carbon footprint allows us to map our impact more accurately. This helps us prioritize reduction efforts where they matter most and track our progress year after year.
Measuring also helps raise awareness among different groups based on concrete data.
Despite all the actions we can take to reduce our impact, a portion of carbon emissions remains inevitable because they are intrinsic to holding the event.
For sports events, mobility remains the largest emission source and therefore the main lever for action.
Faced with these residual emissions, the goal is not to pretend they disappear, but to mitigate their climate impact. This is where carbon contribution—the funding of transition projects—comes in.
The carbon and environmental contribution is an integral part of a global climate strategy. It acts as a direct complement to the reduction actions already underway on the ground (promoting low-carbon travel options to get here, zero-plastic policy, local transport plan, logistical optimization). Once these reduction efforts are maximized, the carbon and environmental contribution allows us to take responsibility for unavoidable emissions by funding climate transition, reduction, and/or CO2 sequestration projects.
The event's contribution program involves all its stakeholders:
- Runners, partners, and exhibitors: contributing based on the emissions linked to their round-trip travel between home and the event.
- The organization: contributing based on the travel emissions of staff, volunteers, and guests, as well as emissions linked to the operational organization of the event (logistics, aid stations, waste management, etc.).
By funding rigorously selected projects, we collectively work toward a dual global objective:
- Avoidance: by supporting projects that prevent new tons of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere (e.g., transition of agricultural methods, renewable energy).
- Sequestration (or capture): by supporting projects that promote carbon sinks that absorb and store CO2 already present (e.g., reforestation/replanting projects, restoration of wetlands).
During registration for the HOKA UTMB Mont-Blanc 2026, a module built into the registration process calculates the contribution amount based on the main address and transport mode declared by the runner.
The organization has set the base price of a "carbon emission" at €25/tCO2eq. This amount achieves a simple balance: remaining affordable for everyone while being effective for ecosystems. This is the necessary price for our commitment to truly fund projects with concrete positive impacts.
The final amount therefore varies according to the mode of transport used and the distance traveled between the runner's address and Chamonix-Mont-Blanc.
Here are some estimates for a round-trip cost:
- France: from €0.5 to €10
- Switzerland, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom: maximum €2
- United States & North America: from €60 to €11
- Asia: from €80 to €16
- Oceania: minimum €150
- South America: from €100 to €150
- Africa: from €25 to €170 (Cape Town)
The payment of this contribution comes in addition to the reduction actions carried out by the event, and 100% of the amounts are transferred to independent third-party organizations authorized to fund the projects.
For a long time, the term "offsetting" led people to believe that a ton of CO2 emitted here could be mathematically canceled out by a ton avoided elsewhere.
But climate reality is more complex: greenhouse gas emissions have an immediate and lasting planet-wide impact.
The word "contribution" allows us to:
- Move away from the concept of a "right to pollute": The contribution acknowledges the event's footprint and adds an extra positive action to help the planet reach global balance. Unlike offsetting, which suggests a perfect equilibrium—almost like erasing a debt.
- Make neutrality a global goal, not an individual one: a company, an individual, or a race cannot be "neutral." However, everyone can contribute so that, on a global scale, society moves toward neutrality by funding climate transition solutions and innovations.
- Embed a climate solidarity approach: Funding transition projects means accepting that our responsibility does not stop at the finish line. It means investing beyond our own scope to preserve ecosystems (mountains, forests, soils).
HISTORY OF THE CARBON AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTRIBUTION AT THE HOKA UTMB MONT-BLANC
2025's edition
- Voluntary participation by runners based on emissions from their travel.
- Participation by the organization based on event operations emissions (using the 2019 carbon footprint benchmark).
- €25,000 fully transferred to SEAS (formerly EcoAct) to partially fund two agricultural transition projects in Haute-Savoie and a renewable energy project in Brazil.
- Approximately 880 tons of CO2 potentially avoided across these 3 projects.
2026's edition
Launch of the event's global carbon mitigation strategy with a collective carbon contribution program:
Runners, partners, and exhibitors fund a contribution matching the emissions from their travel to and from the Mont-Blanc valleys.
UTMB Group contributes based on transport emissions from its volunteers, staff, and guests, plus the local transport plan and other on-site operational emissions.
The projects funded in 2026 will be shared at the beginning of summer 2026.
The carbon contribution you paid during registration only covers your round-trip travel between your home and Chamonix. However, the organization directly contributes to the emissions generated by the UTMB mobility network for your transport on-site.
All collected funds are dedicated to funding climate transition projects, minus the legal VAT paid back to the State. To guarantee a real, transparent, and measurable impact on the ground, we transfer 100% of these net amounts to accredited intermediary organizations. To cover their essential tasks (field audits, technical engineering, administrative and financial management), these bodies receive a management fee of a maximum of 20%. The remaining amount directly funds concrete actions. For the 2026 edition, the list of rigorously selected and funded projects will be officially announced in June.
The intermediary organization guarantees the quality of these projects. Most will be certified by recognized standards, such as the Label Bas Carbone in France or VCS (Verified Carbon Standard) internationally.
However, some may not have certification, but we will ensure that their impact is concrete. These will mostly be ultra-local projects with significant social and biodiversity co-benefits that cannot meet certification criteria that are sometimes inconsistent with field realities.
We prioritize initiatives that offer co-benefits: biodiversity, local development, education, etc.
Since its creation, the HOKA UTMB Mont-Blanc has launched several initiatives to reduce its emissions:
- Implementation of an active collective transport plan since 2004 for local travel.
- Elimination of single-use plastics at aid stations and a zero-waste policy.
- Logistical optimization.
- Support for local suppliers.
In 2026, the organization will contribute to the collective effort to fund climate transition projects based on emissions linked to:
- The travel of its teams, volunteers, and guests.
- Event logistics (aid stations, waste management, etc.).
