The Olympic Games have always been an opportunity for athletes to showcase their talent, and for the hosting city to showcase its beauty. But this year, Vancouver, who will host the 2010 Winter Olympics from February 12-28, has added another ambitious goal: to create carbon neutral Olympic Games.
Olympic Games obviously tend to leave a large carbon footprint – the current forecast for Vancouver 2010 is for 268,000 tons of carbon emissions in fact — 118,000 tons from direct emissions and 150,000 tons from indirect emissions resulting from Games-time travel by participants and spectators. So making the 2010 Olympics carbon neutral is quite an ambitious task.
The organizing committee has put a lot of effort into reducing the carbon footprint of the Winter Games by designing more sustainable game venues, improving energy management systems, and increasing operational efficiency.
Still, given the scope of the Games, the only way to make them truly carbon neutral is to have participants purchase carbon offsets. That’s why we were excited to learn that 25 partners of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games have agreed to invest in clean energy technology projects in order to help offset the carbon emissions related to the Games.
We think this initiative is especially important, because it goes beyond offsetting carbon footprint for the current Games and establishes a carbon neutral legacy for future Games.
If you’re an individual who’s planning to ravel to Vancouver to watch the Games, you too are encouraged to offset emissions from your travel. The Winter Games organizing committee has selected Offsetters.ca as the official Carbon Offsetter for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. Offsetters supports renewable and energy efficiency projects in Canada and internationally to create its CO2 offsets. Visit www.offsetters.ca to calculate your own carbon footprint and to purchase carbon credits online.
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