Olympic Committees Going For the Green

Posted on June 22, 2010
Filed Under Green Sports, TECHNOLOGY |

By Charlie Fisher

Every four years the Olympic Games are more widely viewed — and scrutinized — than any other sporting event in the world. It is an enormous honor to be chosen as an Olympic host country, and it is a position that is aggressively sought after years before the event takes place. The criteria to be selected as a host country has never been perfectly clear, but recently the Olympic Committee has been obviously asserting the message that greener is better.

The 2010 Winter Olympic Games were held in Vancouver, British Columbia, which has become one of the most sustainable cities in North America. It took roughly seven years for all of the Olympic venue construction to be completed and the events organized. Over that SEVEN year time period in Vancouver, significantly less greenhouse gases were emitted than in the few weeks that were the 2002 Salt Lake City Games and the 2006 Turin Games combined. Prior to the Games, the Vancouver committee built two separate Olympic Villages. The village located in the South East False Creek area is made up of 16 buildings and every one was built to meet LEED Gold standards.

All of the buildings rooftops are equipped with solar panels as well as numerous types of vegetation and are designed to collect the frequently falling rainwater for irrigation. Hydropower is relied upon to provide 90% of the city’s electricity, and spectators can travel to all of the events using the local transit system, comprised of 20 hydrogen-powered buses. The venue that was built to hold all of the speed skating events, The Richmond Oval, was constructed entirely from trees that had been destroyed by a bug infestation.

Overall, Vancouver has done their part in starting an Olympic movement that emphasizes sustainability and minimizing our impact on the environment and atmosphere. Hopefully this is just the beginning of a movement that will continue to spread and expand exponentially. So if your home country is aiming to host the prestigious Olympic Games, it’s time to go for the green!

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