what do i think?

Welllll....
After reading the full review of the David Suzuki Foundation, here's what I'd give Vancouver 2010, http://www.davidsuzuki.org/files/climate/Climate_Scorecard_for_the_2010_Vancouver_Olympics.pdf
Goals - C
Transparency - B
Measuring Climate Change - B
Venues - A+
Energy Use -A
Transportation - C-
Overall Greenhouse Gas Emissions - C
Offsetting Remaining Emissions - C
Mobilizing Sponsors and Others - B+
Public Engagement - C

VANOC definitely missed the mark on important ones like Transportation, and Public Engagement. These are the areas that will make a difference in the long run for the issues we're facing, specifically climate change.

However, this was a good accomplishment compared to previous Winter Games and I am proud to say that "the greenest Olympics so far" (whether they really were or not actually, it's the attempt at least) were held in my country, in my province. Beautiful British Columbia truly is the best place on earth and I'd like to keep it that way for as long as possible!

vancouver 2010 gets a bronze

In 2007, The David Suzuki Foundation created a discussion report called "Meeting the Challenge"

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/files/reports/Meeting-the-Challenge.pdf

this discussion report explained what the Foundation felt VANOC needed to do in order to actually be able to meet their goal of being the greenest Olympic Games.

"Climate change is a defining issue of our time, and the Winter Olympics are an opportunity to show leadership by reaching and inspiring billions of fans and spectators with solutions to global warming," says Paul Lingl of the David Suzuki Foundation. "Despite some missed opportunities, the steps taken by the 2010 Olympics demonstrate that climate solutions are doable, affordable and can have a lasting legacy."

On February 3rd (1 week before the games were to begin) the Foundation graded the overall efforts and results of VANOC's attempt to make the 2010 Games the "most sustainable games yet". The result = a bronze. Which in my opinion - is pretty sad if this was the attempt to be the greenest games and it got a bronze... dare I even want to know what the previous Games would've gotten...

The evaluation was broken down into 10 categories. Categories that the Foundation "felt were together a good measure of overall performance with respect to climate action and leadership".

1. GOALS - clear goals were set towards energy efficiency and renewable energy... however no goals were set related to a sustainable transportation legacy, nor very clear on how they would "move towards carbon-neutral games".


2. TRANSPARENCY - VANOC provided information of it's climate-related initiatives, and published in total 5 sustainability reports (more than any other organizing committee). VANOC communicated often with local environmental groups that provided feedback on sustainability issues. However, there was a poor information provided on their overall transportation program, and a breakdown of their overall budget for sustainability issues.


3. MEASURING CLIMATE CHANGE -VANOC provided reasonable estimates for all emissions that would be emitted from the Games, and made an extraordinary effort to reduce them over seven years which had never been done for any other games. However, they didn't account in fugitive emissions from refrigeration, or those from suppliers and contractors.


4. VENUES - 8/9 of the new venues were certified under the LEED building rating system. VANOC gets an A for Venues. Once the games are over, the community will be left with innovative, energy-efficient buildings that will reduce greenhouse gases and and save money for years into the future.


5. ENERGY USE - VANOC delivered on it's committment to use clean, renewable energy sources through use of micro-hydro, fuel cells, solar heating and ground source heat pumps, seawater, and many other green sources. They successfully reduced greenhouse gas emissions from generator use by 90% compared to the Turin 2006 Winter Games.


6. TRANSPORTATION - PROS: VANOC did develop sustainable transportation guidelines that include initiatives such as ride sharing, route optimization, and a no-idling policy for their operations. The new Canada Line to the airport will benefit greatly for tourists and locals in the future. Also, many of the streets that were closed during the games were open still to pedestrians and cyclists giving an incentive for people to choose not to drive, and of course the 30% reduction in vehicle traffic goal during the games. CONS: Instead of expanding the existing rail lines, the Sea to Sky highway was widened at a cost of $600 million. This is going to encourage more traffic once the games are over, and result in more greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. The buses used to transport spectators were diesel buses. Even though 30% was a measurable goal, residents will go right back to using their personal vehicles rather than using public transportation.


7. OVERALL GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS - it was estimated that the Games would reduce overall emissions by 15%, however VANOC didn't publicly announce any emission reduction targets, therefore it is hard to evaluate their success, and it's possible they may have reduction opportunities that were missed.


8. OFFSETTING REMAINING EMISSIONS -VANOC had committed to offset 118,000 tonnes of their emissions, which is substantial but it stills represents under half of overall Games-related emissions.
   
   
9. MOBILIZING SPONSERS AND OTHERS -VANOC reached out to sponsors and encouraged their feedback on sustainability issues. In 2009, VANOC held the World Conference on Sport and the Environment bringing together athletes, sponsors, and organizations to discuss climate change and other environmental concerns on sporting events.
   
   
10. PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT - the Olympics were a major opportunity to inspire and educate the world on climate change issues, but VANOC failed to take advantage of it's high profile and reach out to the people on these issues. They did a lot of work behind the scenes to make the games as green as possible but didn't promote enough for others to do their part.

waste management

For the 2010 Games, VANOC wanted to go greener in terms of waste management. For the 27 day period they had a target of diverting from landfill at least 85% of solid waste generated during all operations of the Games.

VANOC's Sustainability Report states that they would go greener by:
-Reducing Sources: Do we need this product? Can we rent it rather than own? Can packaging be reduced or eliminated?
-Reuse: Can they use recycled or recyclable materials? Can they reuse old items in creative ways?
-Recycle: They would recycle and compost all disposable items.
-Waste to Energy: They would divert non-recyclable waste to facilities that convert waste materials to energy through combustion.
-Disposal at Landfill: An is sent to gas-to-energy or standard landfills (the last resort)

Here's a diagram from the Sustainability Report showing just how much waste was generated and how it was disposed of

This is pretty cool to see... wow, 712 metric tonnes of waste was recycled in 1 year from the Games.

With something like the Olympics which draws in international and global attention, it's important to link the "environment" with the Games because this draws awareness (a key factor) to world-wide environmental issues... making people realize that maybe they need to start thinking about how they're affecting our earth, because if the Olympics have taken on the huge challenge to incorporate green practices into every planning stage of the Games, then it has to show to people that the issues we're facing are obviously big ones.

Especially with the Olympics being in Vancouver and showcasing how natural, beautiful, fresh, and clean it is. Whether people saw it on the TV or they were there in person, it truly looks like a painting... you stand at the harbour, look across at the sun shining on the snow capped mountains reflecting on the ocean. This is our earth, and lets keep it looking this beautiful for the next generations.

let's go vancouver!

So... here's a recap,
VANOC's plan
1) KNOW - they estimated 268,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases would be emitted from the Games
2) REDUCE - they reduced their fuel use and integrated LEED green principles into planning and operations that reduced emissions by 57,000 tonnes
3) OFFSET - VANOC teams up with Offsetters, and together helps grow the clean technology sector in BC and contribute to the shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources
and lastly,
4) ENABLE & INSPIRE -increase awareness and get others to "do their part"

So how much of this awareness got to people? Did others actually "do their part"? Or will anyone care now that the Games are over? In "The Province" newspaper it stated that according to city statistics, Vancouver reduced traffic downtown by 30% in time for the opening ceremony. Another stat found was that 88% of people voted that they would like to see more frequent SeaBus and SkyTrain service over more hours. The city should take this information and do a trial period where they put in more frequent SeaBus and SkyTrain service throughout the city, market it, and see if the percentage of locals will actually make the decision to switch and start taking public transportation. So it'll be interesting to see if they actually take the feedback and get more locals on board with taking greener options for their everyday transportation.

However, lets not forget that there are still the Paralympic Games starting March 12, 2010. A statement was released yesterday by VANOC (http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-news/n/news/2010-olympic-transportation-plan-a-success_303738sk.html) stating that they were extremely happy with the transportation choices that citizens made during the February 12-28th period, and that the urge them to keep travelling smart throughout the next phase of the Games. However, they are also not having as many road closures as there were before, so there's a good chance that was the main reason for people taking public transportation and that now they will go back to their regular routine and route for getting to/from work. It will be interesting to see just how much those record numbers in my post "is no one driving" drops when the Paralympic Games are in Vancouver.

carbon-neutral eh?

The Winter Games use energy to heat buildings, make snow, freeze ice sheets and sliding tracks, run power equipment, and transport large numbers of people and goods - all of which generates greenhouse gases, which causes global warming, which is currently melting all our glaciers and causing changes in weather patterns (everyone would like to know where Canada's snow is?)...... and yet the Winter Games depend on snow and ice. How ironic eh?

Here's a diagram showing the estimated tonnes of greenhouse gases that would be generated by the games directly and indirecty -

http://www.vancouver2010.com/dl/00/19/23/vanoc-carbon-management-fact-sheet_60d-jJ.pdf

"Climate change is an enormous threat, but it's also an opportunity," said Niclas Svenningsen, head of sustainable United Nations at the United Nations Environment Programme. "The Olympic Games are one of the most high-profile events in the world. If it's possible to demonstrate a carbon-neutral Games, it's an opportunity to highlight to hundreds of millions of people what really can be done. The first step is to have a basic understanding of what it’s all about and why it matters because people think, ‘Oh it’s such a big problem my little travel doesn’t matter at all’, "And of course it is small parts all together that make up the solution."

VANOC planned take action on climate change by aspiring to have carbon-neutral Games by making public buildings like arenas and low-incoming housing energy efficient, using innovative heating/cooling solutions like geothermal transfer and waste heat recovery, and by developing renewable energy sources.

In Novemeber 2009, VANOC released an updated estimate of carbon emission totals that would be caused by the Games which implemented their Carbon Management Program. Their Carbon Management Program consists of 4 steps,

1. KNOW... how much carbon we are emitting and publicly track and report on it

2. REDUCE... emissions wherever possible

3. OFFSET... direct carbon emissions that cannot be reduced or eliminated

4. ENABLE AND INSPIRE FURTHER ACTION... use the 2010 experience to increase awareness of and participation in emerging solutions to climate change

They then aimed to reduce 268,000 tonnes of carbon emissions (118,000 of direct and 150,000 of indirect) generated as a result of the Games. To put that into context, reducing 268,000 tonnes would be the equivalent of taking 49,084 passenger vehicles off the road or the equivalent electricity use to power 37,171 homes for a year.

VANOC teamed up with Offsetters, a leading BC based carbon management company to better offset the 268,000 tonnes of emissions and invest in new clean-technology projects that remove or avoid an equivalent amount of emissions from the atmosphere.

http://www.offsetters.ca/

Through all the green initiatives VANOC has done, they believe they've successfully reduced the carbon footprint of the Games by 18% or 57,000 tonnes of carbon over business-as-usual.

http://www.vancouver2010.com/dl/00/19/23/vanoc-carbon-management-fact-sheet_60d-jJ.pdf

Yeah, 118,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions sounds like an aweful lot, but the Winter Games in Turin produced about 160,000 tonnes just in the 17 day period, and Salt Lake City spewed out 248,000 tonnes in just 17 days also. 118,000 is the total over 7 years! So Vancouver 2010 has certainly raised the bar for future Olympic Games I'd say ...

sustainable venues

So one thing I'm impressed with is how VANOC built all new buidings and improved existing buildings used for the Games in accordance with Leadership and Environmental Design (LEED) green building ratings system.

A full list of the buildings can be found at :
http://www.vancouver2010.com/more-2010-information/sustainability/sustainable-venues/

There were a ton of changes and improvements made to all buildings and sites used for the Games, but I wanted to post a few of the changes I read that I thought were cool...

The Richmond Olympic Oval has a BC Pine-Beetle wood roof. It's made from BC wood that's been destroyed by the Pine Beetle infestation. VANOC targeted LEED "Silver" green building certification for this facility.

http://www.venueenergytracker.com/

This is an image showing the amount of electricity used for the Richmond Olympic Oval during a 1 week period during the games. The blue curve shows the original electrical consumption amounts (total would've been 1,299 kW), while the green curve shows what the amount of consumption would have been had they not involved sustainable practices (total actually was 1,104kW). I think this is pretty cool...

Many of the buildings including the Vancouver Olympic Centre, are re-using rainwater. It is collected and re-used for flushing water efficient toilets, and reducing the amount of potable water used at this venue. VANOC targeted LEED "Gold" green building certification for this facility.

The Whistler Creekside had a Wildlife Management plan prior to the building of the area where alpine skiing events would be taking place; avoiding and minimizing harming wildlife, aquatic, and terrestrial habitats. For example, a tailed frog management plan was implemented during construction which meant relocating hundreds of tadpoles and adult frogs to protect them from potential construction impacts.

The Whistler Sliding Centre where the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton competitions take place has been made to be Energy Efficient. By using trees throughout the site to cast shade, a weather protection and shading system that covers most the track, and by painting the track white to minimize heat absorption they've been able to maintain ice track temperatures and reduce the energy demand on the refrigeration system. VANOC targeted LEED "Silver" green building certification for the centre.

The only thing I'm a bit confused about is there are 4 levels of LEED certifications (Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum), so why are all the venues certified only at Silver and Gold levels, and not at Gold and Platinum? Fair enough that not all the already existing venues could've been improved that drastically, but the new buildings built specifically for the Olympics, if they had to build them brand-new anyways why didn't they make them Platinum certified?

is no one driving?

So I've found a few quick facts on how people are getting around in Vancouver from "The Province"...

-1.6 million a day (average ridership is 750,000 to 800,000): the number of riders on the city buses, SkyTrain, SeaBus, and West Coast Express
-250,000 a day: the number of riders on the Canada Line
-20,000 a day: the number of pedestrians across the False Creek bridges
-5,000 a day: the number of cyclists across the False Creek bridges

Approximately 35% of greenhouse gas emissions in Metro Vancouver come from transportation, so this is a good start to making a change I'd say... but is this enough though? Enough to make a difference in the long run? How many of these people whether they're from BC or Japan will still use public transit once the games are over? Well according to Dave Bracewell , Olympic transportation manager for the City of Vancouver, on Saturday they saw 20 per cent more cars downtown that the previous Saturday. So I guess people couldn't even wait a week after the games officially started.

My opinion - we're doomed.

vancouver = incredible

So I was just in Vancouver the last 3 days, and it was absolutely amazing! I've been to Vancouver many many times before, and this time I felt like a tourist. You could see the pride in Canadians, and could tell all the tourists were completely stunned at how beautiful Vancouver is. It was an incredible experience just be in the midst of it all - the pride and the craziness... and I loved every second of it.

So of course while I was there, I was looking around to see if I noticed any changes in the city trying to be greener for the Games. From what I saw I was actually extremely impressed with the city.

First thing I noticed was the transit. This whole time VANOC has been trying to get both locals and tourists to travel smart by emphasizing using public transit during the 2010 Games. I definately think people started realizing that - hey the Games are coming whether you want them to or not... the streets are going to be rediculously busy... parking is costly and going to be hard to find... and really the transit system in the city is not so bad. Of course you can expect tourists to be taking the public transit, but from what I saw, locals seemed to be doing the "smart thing" too. Actually according to todays "The Province" there was apparently an overwhelming record for transit use last week with an estimated 1.5 million skytrain riders in a single day and more than 5,000 bicycles on the street. Even last night, there were people lined up for blocks waiting to board the skytrain downtown at every station. It was nuts! Yesterday I had lunch with Kevin Krueger in the mall in downtown Vancouver (beside the point) and he told me that the numbers they have of people using the new Canada Line, they didn't expect to see until 2020! That's incredible. VANOC brought in extra trains so you're never waiting for it for literally more than a minute, so why not take the greener, cheaper, and actually faster option?

Secondly, I'll also add that I was impressed to see how clean the streets were staying with millions of people walking downtown. It's a small thing, but it was nice to see they had put up large green and blue garbage bags around the bases of trees on the sidewalks. One for garbage and the other for recyclables - very convienant! Well done Vancouver!
-This is a picture I took Friday in downtown Vancouver

VANOC's part

So before I actually start reading what critics have said about the end result on how "green" the 2010 games turned out to be, I wanted to see what promises VANOC made about making them the "most sustainable games ever".

So on Vancouver2010.com there's a section called 12 Ways VANOC Built Sustainability into the Games

http://www.vancouver2010.com/more-2010-information/sustainability/discover-sustainability/

What I want to research on and track in this blog are how successful they were in
- incorporating LEED standards into the venues design and construction
- incorporating green principles into transportation, and waste management
- building carbon-neutral games
- raising awareness in how others can "do their part"

Back in March 2009, VANOC set a target to offset carbon emissions by 300,000 tonnes that were caused by direct and indirect emissions for the 27 day Games. This is a significant number obviously, but there are major emission sources associated with the 2010 Games like ground transportation of people and goods, energy consumption at events (including electricity, heating, snow making, and freezing ice rinks and sliding tracks), and air travel for participants and spectators. These emissions cannot be reduced or avoided – only mitigated.

Here's a video I found on YouTube of the same video posted on VANOC's website showing their "journey" to sustainability and how they were going to incorporate it into the organizing and planning of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAMWcwY4_e0

Also on a side note something that is interesting, VANOC not only set a target to offset carbon emissions for the 27 days, but from the day of the winning bid. That was 7 years ago. VANOC is the only olympic organizing committee to do this, all others only had targets for the 27 day period.

why this?

As I said in my "me" section, I am from Kamloops BC. About a 3 hour drive away from Vancouver. I've been to Vancouver countless times in my life and I love the city. It's absolutely beautiful, and there's no place like home.

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics are just 2 days away now, and I am extremely proud to be hosting the games in my home province and to showcase Beautiful British Columbia. I've never really watched the Olympics in previous years, but I sure will be every second I can starting in 2 days.

Also being from Kamloops, I learnt how to ski when I was very young and loved going to Sun Peaks every weekend with my dad. Skiing was the only "ok" part of the winter for me... otherwise I hated it. My whole life I've gotten use to the fact that I have to live in (what I felt like was) the coldest country in the world. But now, within the last couple years I have definitely noticed the dramatic change in climate during the winter months. For example - I live in Canada, it's February, and last week I saw someone rollerblading down the street in shorts and a t-shirt, and another person for a walk wearing flip flops... ?? Who would've thought, eh? I don't really even remember when the last time it snowed was.

This is why I've started thinking more and more about ideas around global warming, the environment, and being "green". I've actually started caring about how I can be more green in my life.

These are the reasons for me choosing this as my blog topic. Vancouver 2010 - was it just a dream to be green? Or has VANOC actually effectively built sustainability into the games? This is what I want to find out...