World Athletics is moving event sustainability from reporting requirements to graded, audited scoring, with contractual obligations for the events it owns. London’s platinum result shows organizers and their commercial partners what the top level looks like for a mass-participation race.
Marathons keep getting bigger, and runners fly in from abroad to join them. Paris counted 57,464 finishers in April, and 29 percent of the field came from abroad. Berlin followed on Sept. 27, with about 84,000 people from 162 nations registered across the marathon and its companion races. Each of those trips adds to an event’s footprint. So can a marathon be popular and sustainable at the same time?
The TCS London Marathon now has an answer on paper: platinum, the top rating under the Athletics for a Better World Standard (ABW), the scoring system World Athletics, the sport’s international governing body, uses to grade the sustainability of events.
Five events have reached platinum since the standard launched in 2024, and London is the latest. Among one-day competitions, only the Oslo Bislett Games (2024, 2025) and Weltklasse Zurich (2025) had done it before. The 2024 world indoor championships in Glasgow and the 2025 world championships in Tokyo hold the other two platinum ratings.
How the scoring works
World Athletics assesses events on a scorecard of 55 criteria grouped under six pillars, with 120 points on offer. Platinum requires 108 points (90%) and bronze 72 (60%), with gold and silver tiers in between.
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What the audit credited
Assessors carried out an on-site audit before awarding the rating. According to organizers, the results included:
● Energy: biofuel in the temporary generators brought the renewable share of event energy to 92.8 percent
● Travel: free rides on the Underground and part of the Overground and bus networks for 59,830 volunteers, staff and participants in all
● Local sourcing: suppliers within 100km (62 miles) of Greater London provided more than 65 percent of the goods and services
● Catering and waste: beef came off the menu, and close to 60 percent of waste stayed out of landfill and incinerators
● Air and trees: a first air-quality monitoring plan, with live readings displayed at the starting line, and 6,000 trees planted via Trees not Tees
● Carbon: each international entrant pays a £31 (€36) levy toward carbon-removal credits and emissions-reduction projects
● Community: record fundraising of £87.5 million (€103m) for charity, plus 17.5 metric tons of clothing for the Salvation Army
The rating matters beyond London
World Athletics has required reporting from most of the elite competitions it runs or awards since January 2024. Submissions climbed from 104 events in 2024 to 121 the following year, and more than 100 are expected this year, mostly first-time filers. From the second half of 2026, events the federation owns must also reach a defined level under their contracts.
President Sebastian Coe called London “a sustainability model that all sports can follow.” Until now, only track-and-field meetings and championships had reached platinum. London shows that a mass-participation race, run through city streets with a five-day expo and a week of fan events, can meet the same bar.
The travel question remains open
Travel is the harder part of the equation. London’s own website puts international participants’ journeys at more than 90 percent of its footprint, and the levy on international entrants is its answer. The announcement does not put a tonnage on that. As races keep growing, every organizer will face the same question.
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