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"Going For Gold and Staying Green"
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 With about two weeks to go before the opening of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, the organizing committees are hoping that it will be the "greenest" Olympic Games so far. What successes and failures mark Sydney's commitment to "going for gold and staying green"?
Hosting an event the size of the Olympic Games can have disastrous consequences for the environment. Local ecosystems suffer as a result of the large-scale construction of new roads and buildings; pollution levels rise with the increase of both human and vehicular traffic; and natural resources such as water and timber are put under severe pressure as demands increase.
There's also an environmental threat on a global scale. The Olympic venues where the athletes compete use enormous quantities of air-conditioning and refrigerant formulas. These formulas contain chlorine-based chemicals (HCFCs)—which contribute to the destruction of the ozone layer—and greenhouse gases (HFCs)—which contribute to global warming.
To combat these threats, and to serve as a highly visible model to its worldwide audience, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has resolved to make environmentalism "the third pillar of Olympicism" in the coming Sydney Games, alongside sport and culture. Going forward, all countries bidding to host the Olympic Games will need to present an environmental proposal, detailing their commitment to "cleaner, greener Games."
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For the Sydney 2000 Games there have been significant environmental achievements in five key areas:
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Energy conservation: All the Olympic venues will run on 100% Green Power (renewable energy) during the Games, setting an Olympic record; most Olympic venues have solar panels on their rooftops; a solar electricity-generating system consisting of 800 solar panels will power water pumps for the Olympic site; solar technology is used to power electrical hardware such as security gates in the village; the Olympic Plaza is lit by 19 solar-powered lighting towers—each one bearing the name of an Olympic host city.
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Pollution management: Around-the-clock public transportion will be the sole method of travel to the venues, making this the first car-free Olympics (about 1.2 million people are expected to use the public transportation daily); about $55 million has been spent on expanding the railway lines that serve the Olympic site; 400 solar-powered buggies will transport athletes and officials around the Olympic sites; alternatives to plastic PVC are used in plumbing, cabling, and plastic seating in most of the Olympic venues and in the Olympic Village (the manufacture of PVC produces dioxin, the most toxic chemical ever produced); the use of PVC in mascots has been banned.
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Protection of biodiversity: Building plans were adapted to protect the habitat of the Green and Golden Bell Frog when it was discovered that an abandoned brick pit on the Olympic site was one of only twelve breeding grounds of this species; instead of "old growth" timber, renewable plantation timber grown specifically for commercial use was used to build the Olympic Village; one of the last remaining native Australian forests, Newington Woodlands Forest, was protected from being cleared to make room for development on the Olympic site.
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Waste avoidance: Public areas contain two different types of bins, one for glass, aluminum, and plastic that will be recycled, and one for paper and food that will be composted; eating utensils are made from paper and can be composted with the leftover food scraps; food and merchandise suppliers must reduce the wrapping on their goods to the bare minimum; the merchandise on sale will be made from recycled or recyclable nontoxic materials and will be made to be durable; on-site recycling has ensured that 90% of all waste from demolition of old buildings on the Olympic site is used; 220,000 cubic meters (262,00 cubic yards) of rubble taken from the demolition of an old slaughterhouse was crushed and reused in road building around the site.
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Water conservation: At least 50% of water used at the venues and the Olympic Village will be recycled, or it will be reclaimed from rain water; water-saving devices, such as low-flush toilets, are installed throughout the Olympic site; the planting of indigenous shrubs that need less water will help reduce water usage during the Games and will also preserve local species by adding to their numbers.
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This is the third article in Riverdeep Today's Summer Olympics series.
Read our previous articles:
"Olympic
Swimmers Well-Suited"
"Burning
on Brightly"
Look for upcoming stories about Olympic trampolining on Sept. 7 and a weeklong article about Olympic rowers beginning on Sept. 11.
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A Solar Village
The Sydney Olympic Athletes Village is the world's first solar-powered village.
Each structure is oriented toward the Sun to maximize natural light and heat, has shading fixtures that reduce the need for air-conditioning, and uses energy-efficient appliances. Because of these design features, the energy requirements of the village are cut by half.
Most of the required energy is produced by solar power, gathered from rooftop solar panels. All 665 houses run on solar-powered electricity and have solar-powered hot water systems. Street lighting is also solar-powered.
The Olympic Athletes Village will produce 1 million kilowatt-hours of energy a year, equivalent to the output of a small power station. This represents a saving of 7,000 tons of CO
2
a year from the burning of fossil fuels that contribute to global warming.
You can learn to calculate kilowatt-hours and power of electricity in the Middle School Gateways activity,
Electric Power.
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 The environmental group Greenpeace helped draft Sydney's environmental policies for the 2000 Games, which were then passed as law by the New South Wales government. Since then, Greenpeace has issued report cards that grade Sydney on its success in carrying out these policies. Despite the achievements to date, Greenpeace has awarded Sydney a disappointing grade C (6 out of 10) on its final report card.
"It's a bronze medal performance," says Blair Palese, the coordinator of Greenpeace International's Olympic Campaign. "While these Games will be green, they have only just crossed the line."
According to Greenpeace, there are two prime factors contributing to Sydney's low grade:
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Use of HCFCs and HFCs: All air-conditioning systems and most refrigeration systems at the Games will contain the environmentally damaging gases, HCFCs and HFCs. This is a grave concern for Greenpeace, as it is estimated that over 20 years, 1 ton of HFC causes 3,300 times more environmental destruction than 1 ton of CO
2
. Environmentally safe refrigerants such as hydrocarbons (HCs) and Greenfreeze are available and are necessary for a successful "Green Olympics."
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Failure to clean up Homebush Bay: Sydney committed to the cleanup of Homebush Bay as part of its environmental policy for the Games. The area, which lies just 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) away from the Olympic site, is one of the most toxic waterways in the world. It's illegal to fish in Homebush Bay because deformed fish taken from its waters have been shown to contain high levels of the chemical dioxin in their tissue. In addition, 400 tons of dioxin-contaminated waste were found on the Olympic site in 1997. The process of breaking this waste down into its nontoxic, constituent parts has begun, but will not be finished by the time the Games begin. The site does, however, meet safety levels at present. But the issue of who will manage the treatment of the waste after the Games is a further concern for Greenpeace.
Other faults noted in the report card are the use of PVC in temporary marquees on the site; failure to use energy-efficient fuels in cars for VIPs and public buses; and lack of cooperation on the part of the Olympic organizing committees.
Greenpeace believes that the "next evolution of the Olympic Games" is to hold them in the same location each year. "Recreating Olympic sites all over the world makes no sense environmentally," says Palese. "We must learn to use what we have and improve on that rather than starting over and over."
The final message from Greenpeace is that the world has a lot to learn from the achievements and failures of the Sydney Olympic Games. Our challenge now, in the words of Palese, is to "take up the baton of environmental solutions, and run with it after the Games."
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What do you think of the suggestion to hold the Games in the same place every four years to reduce their impact on the environment?
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What do you think of the statement: "The only environmentally friendly Olympics would be no Olympics at all"? Weigh the positive aspects of the Olympics against the price to the environment.
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Think of an upcoming athletic event in your school or neighborhood. Identify some possible environmental problems, and propose solutions that would make the event more "green."
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Name of Athletic Event
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Environmental Problem
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Proposed Solution
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Worm Farming
The Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) has adopted an unusual method of coping with waste. About 400,000 worms are being held in a "worm farm" at the SOCOG headquarters to consume the waste from the staff dining room.
The worms can consume 75 kg (165 lb) of waste a day. The resulting "vermicast" (worm excrement) is an excellent fertilizer that keeps the soil in the gardens of SOCOG mineral rich, promoting the growth of plants and flowers.
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How much waste will these worms consume during the 16 days of the Olympic Games?
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Work out, in grams or ounces, how much waste each of these 400,000 worms can consume in a day.
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Find out more about how worms can act as
recycling agents.
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