A group of Northern California businesses – Clif Bar & Company, Decathlon and IKEA Emeryville, in collaboration with Emeryville Council member John Bauters and Save The Bay, are teaming up to launch the first-ever city-wide event in Emeryville that combines the adrenaline of running with the environmental stewardship of picking up litter. The event is based on the Swedish tradition of plogging, a combination of the words jogging and plocka upp, the Swedish term for “pick up.” The event features three route options, with the goal of cleaning nearly ten miles of city streets.
Open to the public, the event will start on Saturday, September 21, at IKEA Emeryville. All routes will finish at Decathlon, two blocks from IKEA Emeryville, for a party with food, music, prizes and giveaways, including exclusive event t-shirts made from recycled plastic bottles for the first 100 participants, tote bags and other gifts from participating companies.
“This event combines everything that we are passionate about at Decathlon: sports, community and our planet,” said Jennifer Tetrick, Director of Communications and PR for Decathlon USA. “We’re excited to bring plogging to the East Bay. Last year, Decathlon’s global teams collected over 73 tons of trash, and we hope to help top that number this year – and together, make the world a cleaner place.”
Greg Long, a professional big wave surfer, Clif Bar Athlete, and environmental activist, will be joining in the event. Despite having won multiple world titles and numerous big wave awards, Greg acknowledges his greatest accomplishment as his ability to use his life stories and lessons learned in the ocean to teach and inspire others to live as responsible stewards for our planet. Greg works alongside a number of environmental organizations to help educate and raise awareness surrounding the health of the ocean and the natural world.
“This day is all about the power of communities coming together around shared values,” said Carolina Leonhardt, Sustainability Project Manager, Clif Bar & Company. “We’re especially excited to have Greg Long plogging along with us. He is a true champion in his sport and a champion for the environment.”
“At IKEA, being a good neighbor and demonstrating commitment to community is an essential part of who we are,” said Maike Buhmann, Store Manager, IKEA Emeryville. “We are proud to be a part of “Clean up to Green Up” and to help kick-off the first-ever city-wide plogging event, especially as a company with strong Swedish roots.”
The companies have previously participated in plogging events around the world, with Decathlon’s cleanup event last year resulting in over 73 tons of trash pickup globally and Clif Bar’s company-wide plogging challenge for Earth Day 2018. The group is encouraging people around the country and world to join this plogging challenge and to join the conversation using the hashtag #PickItUp2019.
EVENT INFO:
Clif, Decathlon, IKEA Plogging Run & Party
Saturday, September 21, 2019
8:30am Start: IKEA Emeryville (4400 Shellmound St, Emeryville, CA)
10am-12pm Finish Festival: Decathlon (3938 Horton Street, Emeryville, CA)
All routes finish at Decathlon Emeryville, where participants can enjoy:
Food & refreshments
Prizes and giveaways
Education about protecting the environment from the experts at Save The Bay
Photo wall for fun photo ops
To sign up for the event and get information on how to plog in your community, visit EmeryvilleCleanUpToGreenup2019.eventbrite.com.
About Clif Bar & Company: Clif Bar & Company crafts nutritious and organic food to feed and inspire adventure, including the CLIF® BAR® energy bar; CLIF Kid®, Nourishing Kids in Motion® and LUNA®; The Whole Nutrition Bar. Family and employee-owned, the company is committed to sustaining its people, brands, business, community and the planet. For more information on Clif Bar & Company, please visit www.clifbar.com, check out our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/clifbar and follow us at www.twitter.com/clifbar and www.instagram.com/clifbar.
About Decathlon: Since its founding in 1976 in France, Decathlon has been making sports more accessible to everyone with high quality, affordable sports gear and equipment. Decathlon designs, innovates and produces its own products, exclusively available in Decathlon’s points of sales. With over 1,600 stores worldwide and a presence in over 51 countries, Decathlon is a leading sporting goods retailer and brand. A member of RE100, Decathlon also joined the Plastic Leak Project which aims to support data-based solutions to prevent plastic waste across the lifecycle of products.
For more information about Decathlon, visit www.decathlon.com and use @DecathlonUSA on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
About IKEA: Since its 1943 founding in Sweden, IKEA has offered home furnishings of good design and function at low prices. Ingka Group, a strategic partner and the largest franchisee of the IKEA system operates 369 IKEA stores and touchpoints in 30 countries, including 50 in the U.S. During the past year, 160,000 co-workers welcomed 838 million visits to IKEA stores and more than 2.35 billion visits to IKEA.com.
For more information see IKEA-USA.com, @IKEAUSANews or @IKEAUSA on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest.
About Save The Bay: Save The Bay protects and restores San Francisco Bay for people and wildlife. The organization was founded in 1961 by three courageous women. Today, the organization’s team is an innovative and dedicated group that inspires and mobilizes Bay Area residents to unite behind a clean and healthy Bay. Save The Bay restores wetlands around the Bay to provide essential habitat for wildlife and to protect people who live along the shorelines. Save The Bay and our many partners battle Bay Area climate and pollution threats to improve the health and safety of our communities. Save The Bay’s Executive Director David Lewis has led the organization for more than 20 years.
About “Clean-Up to Green-Up:” “Clean-Up to Green-Up” is a city-wide clean-up initiative, led by a group of companies and organizations in Emeryville for two days of litter clean-up events from September 20-21, including Friday’s Shoreline Clean-Up Corporate Challenge and Saturday’s public Shoreline Clean-Up and Plogging events. The weekend corresponds with World Cleanup Day, which is Saturday, September 21, and is the world’s largest volunteer day to protect the environment. Companies and organizations leading the Clean-Up to Green-Up effort include: Amyris, Clif Bar, Decathlon, Grifols, IKEA Emeryville, Pixar Animation Studios, Stasher, Wareham Development, Emeryville Councilmember John Bauters, Golden Gate Audubon Society and Save The Bay.
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