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 ...