Interview of Eva Solomon by Annie Wolock, A2J CC
On any given weekend in southeast Michigan, hundreds of runners line up for a race: bibs pinned, sneakers tied, and hearts pumping. What most participants never see is the quiet, intentional work happening behind the scenes to make sure the event doesn’t leave behind mountains of trash. That effort is being led locally by Eva Solomon of Ann Arbor, founder of Epic Races, and it has made her something of a quiet climate hero.
Epic Races was founded in 2008 to meet a growing need for women-centered athletic events. From the beginning, environmental responsibility was part of its mission, but over time, that value has evolved into something much more concrete: producing zero-waste races. For the past eight years, Epic has partnered with Jeff from Happy Planet Running, the person Eva calls the “magic” behind their waste systems, to transform what could be a landfill-heavy operation into one that diverts nearly everything away from trash.
This didn’t happen overnight. It required careful planning, persistence, and sometimes pushing back on sponsors. When a beverage sponsor supplied paper cups lined with wax, Epic advocated for compostable alternatives. When a food sponsor distributed single-serve yogurt in plastic containers that had to be washed before recycling, the team decided: never again. Now, everything is planned with end-of-life in mind. Volunteers sort single-stream recycling, compost is clearly separated, and waste is treated not as inevitable, but as something to be actively designed out.
One clear example is the Ann Arbor Marathon, one of Epic’s flagship events. This year, the results were striking: only 2.4% of the waste went to landfill, while 20.8% was composted and 76.8% recycled. What still ends up in landfills is mostly the unavoidable stuff: wet wipes, diapers, and ice cream wrappers. (If someone brings a baby along and leaves a diaper behind, it becomes part of the waste stream.)
Eva’s motivation is deeply personal. As a young person, she learned about the climate crisis long before it was mainstream. Later, when her children were small, they became the ones urging their parents to recycle, reuse, and reduce; even swapping paper napkins for cloth at home. Before launching Epic Races, Eva also taught at Ann Arbor’s Hebrew Day School, where she helped lead the school to become green-certified, and green practices continue to be a part of the school culture.
That thread, education, responsibility, and care, runs straight through Jewish values. The principle of bal tashchit forbids needless waste. Tikkun olam calls on us to repair the world, not exploit it. Epic Races embodies both: showing that even large, complex events can be run with mindfulness and restraint.
In a time when the climate crisis can feel overwhelming, Eva’s work offers something quietly radical: proof that change doesn’t only come from policy or protest. Sometimes it comes from a race director, a sorting station, and a belief that how we gather matters just as much as why.