VANCOUVER — Athletes from the around the world begin their quest for gold this weekend as the Beijing Olympics commence.
But 8,500 kilometres away in Vancouver, organizers of the 2010 Winter Olympics are focusing on green as they strive to make the Vancouver Games the most sustainable yet.
The long-range planning for a cleaner, greener Olympics is in contrast to Beijing, where officials have been scrambling in recent weeks to cut pollution and improve air quality in anticipation of welcoming the world to the 2008 Summer Games.
Sustainable practices are a cornerstone of the $580-million construction program that the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) is overseeing to ensure Canada is ready to host 5,500 athletes from more than 80 countries when the Winter Games begin in February, 2010.
Indeed, even VANOC's Vancouver offices have received a gold certification under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards for commercial building interiors developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.
All of the facilities and venues for the Olympics and Paralympics have been designed for LEED standards to reduce the environmental impact not only of the Games themselves, but in future years after the facilities have been turned over to the community.
"The venues and the villages really are an opportunity to make a positive contribution for long-term community legacies," says Ann Duffy, VANOC's corporate sustainability officer.
The cost of developing green buildings is typically between 2 and 7 per cent more than conventional construction, largely because of higher design and material costs, Ms. Duffy said. But VANOC projections suggest that the premium will be recovered within five years through lower operating expenses.
Vancouver Park Board chairwoman Korina Houghton said the long-term savings that flow from the more efficient buildings make the new - and much-needed - facilities attractive to both the park board and users.
"One thing that we struggle with all the time is the renewal schedule for our community centres, because we have to go to the taxpayers for that, and a lot of our facilities do need renewal," Ms. Houghton said. "From an environmental standpoint, they're certainly not as efficient as the newer buildings."
Whistler, B.C., has long encouraged the greening of new and existing construction, having made a commitment in the early nineties to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions 20 per cent from 1990 levels, even as councillors were committing to doubling the size of the resort.
"We were destined to fail in that commitment, but we made it anyway because it was a strong principle that we believed in," Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed said.
That principle runs through the approach that municipality-owned Whistler 2020 Development Corp. is taking in developing the athlete's village. Set up to oversee the village's construction, Whistler 2020 is applying both LEED criteria and Whistler Green, a local standard for residential development, to the project.
The village is a pilot for the new LEED Neighbourhood Development standard, while a district energy system that captures heat from the local waste water treatment plant will supply about 80 per cent of the heat for the athletes' village.
Whistler has also installed hybrid boilers that can use both propane and electricity to heat water. Several local resort operators have adopted the technology. The supplier, North Vancouver-based Sempa Power Systems Ltd., reports that the systems have helped reduce total greenhouse gas emissions in Whistler by about 5 per cent.
"Anything that's non-fossil-fuel based is going to have benefits," Mr. Melamed said.
The same approach applies to the Games, most notably in the construction of smaller venues with no parking. Whereas the 1994 games in Lillehammer, Norway, offered staging and bleachers for 60,000 people, Whistler is settling for just 12,000 people.
Smaller venues are cheaper to build, while the lower capacity means fewer people will come to the community. That means less vehicle traffic, and the Games-related traffic that does take place will be aboard a fleet of 130 buses - 20 of which will be hydrogen-powered.
"We've effectively reduced the footprint by about 75 per cent, which is about a quarter of the footprint of past comparable Games in terms of downsizing the venues and reducing the number of buses we need to transport all those people from Vancouver," Mr. Melamed said.
While there have been tradeoffs - he isn't a fan of the hydrogen buses, although he acknowledges their value as a showpiece for sustainability initiatives - Mr. Melamed acknowledges that the venue construction hasn't cost the community as much green space as in other host cities.
"Yes, there have been some tradeoffs, but in our case, many fewer than in the past," he said, adding that Whistler had 90 per cent of the infrastructure required to host the Games already in place.
"Sochi [Russia, host of the 2014 Winter Olympics] is having to build a whole new ski area, virtually from scratch. The modification of the natural environment to host that Games will be significant," Mr. Melamed said.
Whistler, he believes, will be different. "We hope it's going to be recognized as an example of a sustainable approach to the Olympics. I think it's going to leave some important legacies for Whistler."
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TAKING THE LEED
All 10 major Olympic facilities in Vancouver and other B.C. communities hosting events have been designed using Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, standards developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. Among them:
Olympic and Paralympic
Village, Vancouver
One building serves as a demonstration of net-zero energy consumption, showcasing consumption monitoring, solar recovery and waste heat harvesting. The site is a former industrial area that will undergo remediation of its shoreline.
Hillcrest/Nat Bailey
Stadium Park, Vancouver
The curling venue consolidates existing facilities, reducing the land impact. Waste heat from the refrigeration plant will heat other building spaces and an adjacent aquatics centre.
Richmond Oval
Hardwood trees harvested during site preparation have been salvaged for reuse in the building for panelling, flooring, furnishings or landscaping features at the facility. Waste heat from the refrigeration plant will be used for ice melting, hot water and heating/cooling systems.
Olympic and Paralympic
Village, Whistler
A district energy system will capture heat from the municipal waste water treatment system and will also reuse methane gas captured from a former municipal landfill site.
