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...