It's nearly impossible to truly "green" a massive event like the Olympics, although we get points for trying. Hundreds of thousands of people will produce thousands of metric tons of garbage. Plastic trinkets of every type and size will be sold. The wealthy will burn jet fuel on private planes. And the majority of those land, air and sea military craft sure aren't hybrids.
About those planes...
One Olympic controversy arose concerning the proposed carbon offset program. Vancouver has offset the carbon produced in preparing for the Games (110,000 tons). However, over half of the total carbon count attributed to the Olympics will come from the people flying from all over the world to Vancouver. VANOC is relying on visitors and competing countries to voluntarily invest in an offset fund. If enough people don't volunteer, we won't reach our goal: 300,000 tons. Stay tuned for final results after the Games.
Here are a couple of the projects helping our Green City shine:
A Streetcar named Sustainability Star
The City of Vancouver and Bombardier Transportation has introduced The Olympic Line – Vancouver's Modern Streetcar. This "pimp my streetcar ride green" project is a prototype. But over 6,000 people who rode it on opening day (January 21), and nearly 9,000 people per day taking it since are making it popular enough so hopefully it will be a "keeper". Connecting Granville Island to the Canada Line Olympic Village Station (Cambie Street and West 2nd Avenue) until March 21, 2010, the Olympic line is FREE. Hours: 6:30 AM to 12:30 A> daily. Visit Getting Around for more ways to travel in sustainable style during the Olympics.
True Green at False Creek?
Despite scandals and budget woes, Vancouver's Olympic Village in False Creek is ready and seeking LEED gold certification (second highest level of certification) for its buildings and the highest platinum rating for its community center.
As seen on the news, buildings feature solar panels and self-sustaining "green roofs" that use a rainwater collection system. Radiant in-floor heating systems also save energy while reducing the circulating pollutants inherent to forced-air systems. Visit Olympics Going Green for more information on False Creek Olympic Village.
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