Running NYC for Climate: Small Steps, Big Miles
Published 10/25/26
On November 1st, Madi, Julie, and Bee will be on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge with roughly 60,000 other runners for the New York City Marathon. They'll wind through the five boroughs- Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan before crossing the finish line in Central Park with very tired legs and very full hearts.
But they aren't just running for a medal. All three are running with NYRR Team for Climate, a charity team built around climate causes. Every training mile, every early alarm, and every fundraising ask is tied to something bigger than a finish time: protecting the places, seasons, and everyday moments we all want to hold onto.
We couldn't be prouder to cheer them on. And their run gave us a good reason to pause and look at our own corner of the world: what we're doing, what we're still working on, and why small steps matter.
Training for a marathon is a lesson in small things adding up. You don’t run 26.2 miles on day one. You start with a short loop around the block, then a few more miles on a Saturday, then a long run that feels impossible until suddenly it doesn't. Months of ordinary effort turn into one extraordinary morning.
That's a lot like caring for the environment. No single choice fixes everything, but the choices stack up. A team of runners raising money for climate work is a perfect example of that idea: a group of people, each doing their part, moving in the same direction.
There's something special about the New York City Marathon in particular. Two million spectators line the streets. Strangers hand out orange slices and hold up hand-drawn signs; bands play on corners in Brooklyn. It's a day that reminds you people show up for each other, and that's exactly the spirit our runners are bringing to the cause.
Running with a team built around climate causes felt like a natural fit, because sustainability is something we've been working on behind the scenes at Chatbooks. We make physical things: photo books, prints, and keepsakes that live on your shelf for decades. That means we think a lot about paper, packaging, and how a book gets from our printer to your front porch.
We're not perfect, and we're not done. But here's what we are doing.
When you order more than one item, we now combine shipments whenever we can. Fewer boxes and envelopes mean fewer trucks, fewer miles, and less material headed for the recycling bin.
Ahead of the busy holiday season, we also switched to a new shipping partner. One reason we like working with them is they track and report the carbon output of the shipments it handles. Measuring is the first step to improving, and we're looking forward to having real numbers to learn from.
We've made a major shift in our packaging, moving most of it, including our envelopes, to recycled and recyclable materials. Our more protective envelope is now fully recyclable and made from recycled materials.
The pages of your Chatbooks now come from a paper supplier that sources from FSC-certified, sustainably managed forests. FSC certification means the wood behind that paper comes from forests managed with long-term health in mind: replanting, protecting wildlife habitat, and respecting the people who live and work there.
Our current paper is made with 10% post-consumer waste (PCW), which means part of every page comes from paper that’s already been used and recycled. It’s also bleached without elemental chlorine (ECF), and it’s produced by a mill with ISO 14001 certification, an international standard for managing environmental impact.
The people behind the presses
None of this happens alone. All of our manufacturing partners care about sustainability and are always working toward a more responsible print operation. We’ve also worked to optimize our shipping, choosing partners who track and report the carbon output of the shipments they handle. And we recently partnered with printers in different regions, so your books travel a shorter distance to reach you, which means less fuel along the way.
This year we combined shipments, switched to a shipping partner that tracks carbon output, moved most of our packaging to recycled and recyclable materials, and switched to an FSC-certified paper supplier. Small steps, but ones we're proud of.
It's the same lesson our runners are learning on every training run. You don't get to the finish line in one giant leap. You get there one mile at a time, with a lot of people cheering you on.