
There’s been a lot of buzz about the Olympic Games’ environmental impact. Carbon-conscious critics rightly point out that developing new infrastructure, powering these facilities, and supporting an influx of athletes and spectators adds enormous environmental pressures.
We went straight to the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) sustainability report to understand what their efforts to “green” this year’s competitions entail. Though a final review of the environmental actions taken by VANOC won’t be released until later this year, their most recent report illuminates their unprecedented commitment.
In fact, it turns out that the approach they adopted this year—which involves measuring their impact as best they can, reducing this impact whenever possible, and offsetting what they cannot cut—is the same approach we embrace here at Brighter Planet.
To reduce unnecessary emissions, VANOC and their partners selected and planned their venue sites to minimize their energy requirements and the need to travel between locations. They encouraged attendees to use expanded public transportation.
They adhered to sustainable design principles when building new infrastructure. The Richmond Olympic Oval, for example, host of the speed-skating events, boasts a ceiling of reclaimed British Columbia wood that had been infected by pine beetles. Its enormous roof harvests rainwater, much of which then irrigates surrounding vegetation or supplements toilet flushing. Its waste heat reuse system captures heat released when making ice and directs this energy to provide hot water. The space was also designed with flexibility in mind and can be used later by Richmond and the Paralympic games.
Overall, VANOC estimates that their initiatives have reduced the carbon footprint of the Games by 15 percent (that’s 57,000 tonnes of carbon emissions over business-as-usual)! To meet their goal of carbon neutrality, the committee partnered with sponsors and a local British Columbia company to offset the Games’ direct emissions, projected to be 118,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents.
Spectators traveling to and from events are encouraged by Olympic athletes with Project Blue Sky to reduce and offset their indirect emissions. Venue Energy Tracker charts the real-time energy consumption of the Games’ major facilities and compares this use with the amount that would have been incurred without the new sustainability strategies.
Overall, it’s uplifting to see that an operation as complex as the Olympics can be addressed with the same simple approach—measure, reduce, offset—we’re honing here. The precedent established by these Games is one that we should uphold even after the closing ceremony; let’s take it upon ourselves to maintain that momentum.
As always, we’d also love to hear your thoughts on the matter (especially if you’ve been lucky enough to have experienced these efforts on the ground in Vancouver)! Join the conversation here or on Twitter…
–Jessica