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330 Riders, 330 BMW GS motorcycles, 330 000 km’s of Africa covered with no carbon footprint!
BMW has for a number of years been serious about CO2 emissions and is striving to become leaders in promoting green practices and technology. The 2009 BMW GS Eco 1000 event provided the perfect platform to become aligned with BMW’s global eco strategy.
The focus is on minimising the carbon footprint of the event, and the carbon emissions will be measured and offset. BMW’s intention is to create a Green legacy program that lives on in all future GS Eco 1000 events.
GCX assisted BMW to establish a reliable carbon footprint baseline this year with a view to understanding the carbon impact at this year’s event and measure future emission reductions against. In the future a sustainable program will be integrated to reduce the carbon footprint, improve waste management and the emissions associated with procurement as well as protecting biodiversity. In addition, the carbon footprint associated with the riders at 2009’s event will be offset through Food and Trees for Africa by planting trees at two schools in the Eastern Free State. The trees will be appreciated by providing much needed shade for the pupils and enhancing the beauty of the landscape.
The event itself took place over the weekend of the 18th to 20th of September. BMW Motorrad hosted three hundred and thirty BMW GS riders in a truly unique event known as The BMW GS ECO 1000. This is an annual event with official starting points in Johannesburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, with overnight stops (depending on point of departure) in Clarens, Beaufort West and Graaf-Reinet. All riders, sponsors, media and organizers met at Gariep Dam on the Saturday afternoon to enjoy a well deserved dinner after the gruelling one thousand kilometre trip and discuss one another’s adventure stories around the fire comfortable in the knowledge that the entire trip was as eco-friendly as possible.
For more information please visit:
http://gseco1000.bmw-motorrad.co.za/Web/Default.aspx
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