Vancouver Olympics Aim to Be Green and Environmentally Friendly

Planners hope to make the 2010 Winter Olympics the most environmentally friendly Olympiad in history. The Games are being hosted in and around Vancouver, which already launched an initiative to become the world's greenest city by 2020.

To that end, the city and the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) created sustainable housing and venues for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. These complexes will later become energy-efficient mixed-use development after the Games. Other groundbreaking green initiatives are specific to the 17-day event, including public transit initiatives, sustainable purchasing and online tracking of energy consumption. Most should inspire other cities for future Olympiads and other sporting events, and even for their standard operating procedures.

Expanding Public Transport

Thousands of athletes and spectators will crowd the Vancouver streets during the Olympics, but area residents can take advantage of expanded public transit. More bus and train lines will be running with longer hours on an accelerated schedule. The city also is helping companies modify their workweeks and expand telecommuting to reduce rush hour traffic. The program could continue reducing traffic and air pollution long after the Games.

Visitors must take the buses and trains because there is no public parking around Olympic venues. All Olympic tickets include unlimited transit services for the day of the event. While most existing sports arenas in other cities are unlikely to turn their parking lots into parks, they can borrow Vancouver's idea of free bus and train rides with game tickets.

Click here for more information on Olympic transportation and to calculate the carbon savings of public transit.

Sustainable Purchasing

The Vancouver Olympic Committee has committed to promoting environmental and social responsibility in the thousands of products that will be used in the Games. The Buy Smart program seeks out products from sustainable companies based in inner-city or Aboriginal communities. For example, a Squamish-owned engraving and giftware business created 138 hand drums as athlete prizes for a 2009 Olympic-qualifying speed skating championships.

"The Buy Smart program aligns with VANOC's values and incorporates all of our objectives related to sustainability and Aboriginal participation," said Kevin DuCharme, co-chair of the Buy Smart steering committee. "It is more than just a guideline; we are accountable for it."

The program can help encourage businesses and event planners in other areas to consider both social and environmental responsibility. Click here for more information.

Carbon Reductions and Offsets

VANOC is the first Olympic organizing committee to start tabulating carbon emissions as soon as it won the Olympic bid. It has been working to minimize its carbon footprint for seven years. The group started with a detailed independent estimate. After some construction and other projects, the group adjusted the number to 270,000 tons of carbon emissions from 2003 through the end of the Games (including indirect emissions out of planners' control such as flights for spectators). VANOC then looked at each piece of the operation and sought savings.

The torch relay employed vehicle sharing and other fuel reduction measures that cut emissions by two thirds. The logistics fleet for the Vancouver Olympics will reduce emissions through a no-idling policy, reduced speeds and fuel-saving driving techniques. Some buildings will harvest and reuse waste heat energy from ice refrigeration. Finally, diesel generators will be replaced with greener hydropower. Publicizing each of these creative measures can encourage others to follow suit.

Tracking Energy Usage

As the next step, the Olympic organizers worked with BC Hydro to track energy usage at each Olympic venue. BC Hydro is a major electric utility in British Columbia that produces most of the province's electricity at 30 hydroelectric power facilities.

The energy consumption will be available on this Web site in real time. VANOC also hopes the data will set benchmarks for other venues and large sporting events. This is the first energy tracking effort at the Olympic Games, let alone a system that any Web user can follow.

Vancouver's winter Olympic organizers are trying to run the greenest Games and create the greenest city ever. In addition to cutting energy use, expanding public transit and sustainable sourcing, the VANOC is capturing and reusing water and waste heat, using beetle-kill pine wood for its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold building certification.