As Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility Director at New York Road Runners, Aly Criscuolo is able to channel her passion for environmentalism into positive action. She’s clearly making an impact; NYRR’s latest sustainability initiative, Team for Climate, sold out within two minutes of its launch.
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Aly got started on her sustainability path early. “I grew up in the 90s, when it was cool for kids to wear shirts that had ‘Save Planet Earth’ on them and stuff like that,” she recalls, “so I had an appreciation for it at a young age. Then in sixth grade science class, we watched a documentary on climate change and it completely terrified me, but really motivated me to want to do something about it. So ever since then, when I had the opportunity to choose what I was going to study, I always chose environmental studies, just because I was super passionate about it. I never thought that I could actually have a career in it someday down the road. But yeah, it seems to have worked out.”
She credits being able to work in her chosen field to a course of study that she recommends to anyone. “I always say with sustainability, and really anything you’re passionate about, to combine it with a hard skill. If you’re just studying sustainability, it’s going to be hard to be hireable and have skills that are applicable to different opportunities.Whether you are passionate about music, sustainability, dance, whatever it is, combine it with a hard skill, whether that’s finance, IT… then you can enter an industry with that passion and that skill and combine the two.”
Alongside her environmental studies in high school and college, Aly swam competitively, which taught her skills that she’s applied to other parts of her life. “I think the power of training hard for something, believing in yourself, and the ability to see an outcome, to achieve something and gain confidence from it is huge and so applicable to life, especially working in sustainability,” she says. “The opportunity to be team captains and work with all different personalities and be part of a team. There’s so many things we can learn from sport that really help us in life.”
One thing that was not a part of her school years was running. “My journey with running is, I feel like, a common one, where I had to run the mile in gym class in elementary school and absolutely dreaded it, hated it, never thought I’d ever be a runner. And then I had to run for swim training, with the coach yelling at you to go faster and things like that.”
But after she graduated, she discovered that she actually enjoyed running when she could do it on her own terms. It also gave her a way to continue pursuing goals. “I thought when I was done swimming, I would never achieve something athletically again. I was just being active to stay in shape and then I realized, ‘Wow, I can try to do a 10k for the first time. I can try to do a half marathon. I can try to do my fastest 5k.’ And the feeling of doing those was almost more endorphin-inducing than going best times in the pool because they’re things I never thought my body was capable of. So it’s really cool to be able to still do that as an adult and continue that throughout life.”
By the time she was in grad school, she had embraced running, swimming, and triathlon, so when a professor asked what her dream job would be, it was one that would combine those sports with sustainability. “But I’m never going to get a job in that,” she told her. “So impractical.” But with her professor’s encouragement, she pursued that path, and a week after graduation, her role at New York Road Runners was posted.
“The industry just came along a lot quicker than I thought it would,” she says. “And so to have the opportunity to not only combine the passion for running and sports and fitness with the mission of the nonprofit, as well as the manager role and strategy, was really exciting. And then it was also an opportunity to kind of start something from the ground up. New York Roadrunners has had a history of sustainability and there was an opportunity to kind of be a team of one and really work with cross-functional stakeholders across all teams, really embed sustainability across the organization, and build a strategy. So that was really exciting to me.”
New York Road Runners’ vision is “to build healthier lives and stronger communities through the transformative power of running.” As Aly explains, “As a part of our sustainability mission, this includes doing our part to ensure that future generations have access to clean air, green spaces, and a healthy world to run in. So we have facilities, we have nonprofit programming, we have events, and all of this is within our environmental footprint.”
Their most recent initiative is the NYRR Team for Climate. “We are technically the first major marathon in the industry to launch an entry method tied to sustainability efforts, where runners will have the opportunity to run and fundraise for this Team for Climate and really show their commitment towards protecting our environment. It’s a new entry method for our three marquee events. The first one will be the 2024 TCS New York City Marathon, and then the United Airlines NYC Half, and the RBC Brooklyn Half, upcoming in 2025.
“For this upcoming marathon, 200 runners will have the opportunity to fundraise for carbon offsets, which is really exciting, with our partner, Anew Climate. And that will help offset New York Road Runners’’ carbon emissions and the emissions from the TCS New York City Marathon. The registration opened in June, sold out in two minutes. People are very eager for those bibs. So super exciting.
And then they will have a sustainable race day experience. They’re encouraged to come to our blogging event as special guests, and they’ll be taking the most sustainable transportation option to the start in Staten Island, which is a Staten Island ferry. They will be hanging out in a tent that is sustainable, pre-race, powered by electric generators, sustainable catering, there will be a lot of fun fanfare and team camaraderie in the experience. And my favorite part is what they will be wearing on race day. So stay tuned for that.”
While most people don’t have the opportunity to take environmental action on the scale that New York Road Runners does, Aly believes that everyone can make a difference. “I think you can still make a major impact, no matter where you are. I think at a bigger corporation, you kind of have to build your own little community within the larger organization. find those mentors. I had a manager that called them sustainability allies. So find your sustainability allies within the organization that can help move things along.
“Don’t be afraid to dream big and set your intentions in front of the senior leaders. I think there’s so much opportunity there, even though there may be silos and teams may not talk to each other as much. I think there’s still an opportunity to really think big and work with those mentors and allies across the org.
“Sustainability doesn’t have to be in your job title for you to have a climate job. No matter what job or role you have across the organization, you have an opportunity to embed sustainability in your day-to-day. If there is not an environmental team that already exists at your organization, see if you can start one. Invite people from across the organization and see if there’s any initiatives you can work on. Or even just start at kind of the minimum, which is getting to know the other allies and seeing what they’re passionate about, learning from each other. And then kind of look at your day-to-day and think, ‘Okay, where can one of these processes that I’m doing be more efficient and save materials?’ or ‘How can I get my colleagues to recycle?’Just the little things in your day to day. I think everyone has the opportunity to have a climate job.”
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