The Runner’s World Half Marathon and Festival held in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania October 18-20, 2013 has earned gold certification from the Council for Responsible Sport.

Other Hearst Subscriptions sets environmental and social responsibility benchmarks sports events can meet to earn certification. There are four levels from certified to evergreen. Gold is the second-highest level. Since 2008, 75 events have received certification, eight of those have earned gold, according to Council for Responsible Sport executive director Keith Peters.

In 2012, the Runner’s World Half Marathon and Festival earned silver certification.

"The Runner's World team and their event production partner LeadDog Marketing Group were not content to rest on their silver certified laurels for a year, which our protocol allows," Peters said. "Instead, they set an ambitious agenda to improve their credit tally by over 20% and they met their goal."

"The gold certification is a direct result of our pledge to become even greener after our silver certification in our inaugural year, and of the many hours of hard work and diligence by our Runner's World Collegiate Records Go Down at BU Runner's World.

Among the initiatives and accomplishments that helped earn the Runner’s World Health - Injuries:

• Running Shoes - Gear.

• In response to feedback from religious groups in Bethlehem about the impact of road closures on Sunday morning, an ecumenical service was held at the Central Moravian Church on Saturday afternoon. Several religious leaders participated, and about 140 people, including 40 runners, attended the service.

• There was a coordinated effort to increase community awareness of street closures on Saturday and Sunday of the event. Outreach included a pre-recorded voice message that went out to all homes on the race route, and posting on the City of Bethlehem’s website that had route maps and street closure details.

• In partnership with Clothes-Pin, a Center City Philadelphia nonprofit, 1,200 articles of clothing and 300 pairs of used running shoes were collected and donated to the Allen Rescue Mission in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

• Six pallets of leftover water, bananas, and apples were donated to New Bethany Industries.

• Over 50% of food served was procured locally, including 50 bushels of apples from Pappy’s Orchard in Coopersburg, Pennsylvania. All bushels were returned to Pappy’s for reuse.

• 15 members of the cross country team from Dieruff High School were given running shoes and had their entry fees waved for the 5K, then volunteered to help with the half marathon the next day.

• New York Road Runners Mighty Milers program was featured throughout race weekend, with the hope of getting local elementary schools involved in the program. The effort raised over $5,000 and added two Lehigh Valley schools to the summer program.

• Runner’s World hosted 20-30 students in grades 3-5 from the McKinley School, an at-risk school in the Lehigh Valley, for a four-week running clinic to motivate, teach, and inspire kids through the sport of running. Twenty kids where then awarded new running shoes after completing the one-mile kids’ race at the Festival.

The 2014 Runner's World Half and Festival will be held October 17-19. For more information visit rwhalf.com.