The lifestyle of the average North American is unhealthy both for the planet and us. We drive instead of walk, we consume more food than we need and we spend too much time indoors plugged in. Globally, the number of overweight people now matches the number of undernourished — over 1.1 billion according to a WorldWatch paper, Underfed and Overfed. Alternatively, those who prioritize personal health may also be impacting the environment negatively.
Personal fitness has morphed into a highly technical, consumptive activity. Huge big-box gyms contain the latest apparatus and facilities to rival most any outdoor activity. Don’t want to run outside in the rain? Use a treadmill indoors instead. Rowing season too short? Extend the season indoors. Aerobics rooms, climbing walls, swimming pools, steam rooms, Jacuzzis and fully pimped-out weight rooms are common fare at many gyms.
In an effort to outperform the competition and stay up-to-date with the latest technology, the lifespan of fitness equipment in a commercial gym is as little as three years, according to Chris Creighton, president of Healthline Fitness Equipment. This leaves our landfills stuffed with treadmills and stationary bicycles from outdated home and commercial gyms.
Calgary has a smorgasbord of fitness centres to choose from. As the industry grows and trends change, so do the facilities. Most schools and universities offer on-site gyms, many businesses house gyms for their employees and a plethora of privately owned gyms target specific interests. The footprint of fitness facilities — heating and cooling demands and land use — shouldn’t be overlooked.
The question is, is the cost to the planet worth the benefit to human health? Despite an increase in Canadian life expectancy, chronic disease and obesity rates are on the rise. And while caloric intake has increased, participation in exercise has decreased.
The Brits, meanwhile, have come up with a unique way to tackle human and environmental health concerns. Dr. William Bird, an Oxford general practitioner, and the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV) started the Green Gym program in the late ’90s. Green Gym groups meet at least once a week and do between one and four hours of practical conservation or gardening work such as tree planting, weeding or digging.
Doing good has its health benefits. The School of Health and Social Care at Oxford Brookes University independently evaluated Green Gym projects. They found significant improvements in cardiovascular fitness, improved muscular strength, a reduction of depression, a decrease in waist-to-hip ratio and participants asserted they experienced Green Gym participation as being beneficial to their mental health and well-being.
While Green Gym groups haven’t yet sprouted in North America, there are many ways to trim your waistline while managing your ecological footprint. Running groups, outdoor yoga and Tai Chi as well as outdoor boot camps have no requirements for indoor facilities. Groups like the Sierra Club hold regular outings (snowshoeing, hiking, etc.), while annual events like the City of Calgary’s Pathway & River Clean-up offer an opportunity to combine environmental restoration with burning calories.
Some gyms are starting to go green. In 2003, the Harvard Business School (HBS) installed solar photovoltaic panels on the roof of its fitness centre, Shad Hall, as part of its commitment to conserve energy and use natural resources whenever possible. The renewable energy project is a first for Harvard University and, at 36 kilowatts, it’s the second-largest installation of its kind in the Boston area.
Long-term, better urban planning is required to promote the health of citizens and the environment. Were exercise a part of our daily lives, the popularity of gyms might decrease. The WorldWatch’s Underfed and Overfed report recommends communities be redesigned, “making public transportation the centrepiece of urban transport and augmenting it with sidewalks, jogging trails and bikeways. This also means replacing parking lots with parks, playgrounds and athletic fields.”
It warns, “unless we can design an environment and develop a lifestyle that systematically restores exercise to our daily routines, the obesity epidemic — and the health deterioration associated with it — will continue to spread.” Ironically, as we pave over our green spaces and replace them with buildings containing simulated climbing walls and treadmills, neither our health nor the health of the environment seems to get better.
