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Can Vancouver Keep The 2010 Winter Games Green?

The 2010 Olympic Winter Games are just six months away and, while athletes around the world are training for the games, the City of Vancouver is bracing itself for the potential environmental repercussions.  Olympic Games also have been notorious in their costs to host cities, usually leaving millions of dollars of debt. The 1976 summer games left the City of Montreal with a debt that has only recently being paid off.

The City of Vancouver and the province of British Columbia are trying to do things differently.  VANOC, the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Winter Olympics, has signed an agreement with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to enhance the environmental performance of the 2010 Winter Games and to create public awareness about the environmental issues associated with hosting a huge event like the Olympics. The Torino 2006 Winter Games raised the bar for concern about the environment and Vancouver 2010 wants to take environmental consciousness to the next level.

VANOC has vowed to make the games as green as possible. The pressure is on and Vancouver, a traditionally ‘green’ city, wants to leave a sustainable legacy. Despite their good intentions, a number of local environmentalists insist that there is no such thing as an ecologically sound Olympics.  In their view, damage is unavoidable and VANOC and the Olympic committees, along with the people of Vancouver, need to focus on minimizing this damage. The impacts of the expansion of the Sea to Sky highway and the Sky Train are a major issue. VANOC has made a lot of promises and, so far, the committee has done a good job of mitigating the negative environmental impacts. They have made changes to the design and construction of Olympic facilities and infrastructure, such as the residences and sport facilities at the new Olympic Park in Whistler that have been built using recycled materials and low-emission paints, and that use natural lighting as much as possible.

The environmentalists will be watching to see how the City of Vancouver responds to the environmental pressures during the games and how they deal with the aftermath. The experience of previous Olympic Games shows that most of the damage only becomes evident after the games, when clean-up and the sheer magnitude of the event set in.

Torino and Salt Lake City have set the modern-day standard for sustainable games and Vancouver will have to live up to their example and exceed their performance. Having David Suzuki on board as part of the Olympic Committee certainly can’t hurt, but only time will tell us how well Vancouver fares. We’re all watching.

By Carine Redmond 

Carine Redmond, Western Contributor
		About the author:
		A West Coast baby at heart, Carine grew up in Ottawa and attended McGill University in Montreal before setting her sights on Vancouver in 2008. Carine works in PR and has a passion for all things celebrity and media related.  She can usually be found catching up on her celebrity gossip, playing with her Polaroid camera or people watching at the beach (while working on her tan of course).  Style icons include Jackie Kennedy, Tom Ford, and Judith Light as Angela Bower. Can’t live without: cherry chapstick, morning television.
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