Now that February has begun and cemented the continuation of winter, the Winter Olympics have also begun. Being an event on the world stage with competitors and viewers from every country of the world, the Olympics are a great place to involve new sustainable practices to help set a global standard. Many of the competitions presented in the Olympics are consistently practiced around the world and the sustainable practices for these sports in Olympics can help the way those sports are practiced around the world. In addition, the Olympics are practiced every 2 years, causing a lot of travel and carbon emissions every 2 years in order to present the athletes for their events. Setting a sustainable standard can make the frequent Olympics become a much more sustainable event.
First and foremost, the Olympics themselves have put out a lot of information on how they are being sustainable. The Olympics set forth their own precedent before the Winter Games in Beijing were ever commenced. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) set the goal that every single one of the subsequent Olympic games should all be at the very least carbon neutral. Beijing 2022, according to the IOC, has been and will be carbon neutral. In order to accomplish this, the IOC has made a few executive decisions and changes. First, the summer Olympic games were hosted in Beijing in 2008, meaning that there are still resources and venues that were constructed for the 2008 games that can are being reused for the 2022 games.
Besides reusing the venues that already were standing, both the existing venues and all new venues are being powered entirely by renewable energy. This is the first time that the Olympics have used renewable energy to power their venues. The two main sources of energy for the games are created through solar and wind cultivation. The solar and wind energy is being cultivated at another city outside of Beijing and then transferred to the city through the “Zhangbei flexible direct current grid project.” Outside of providing power to the venues, this energy is used to power 10% of all of Beijing’s electricity.
One aspect about the winter games is that venues and events usually need to be kept cold or at a certain level for snow or ice. This task is usually not easy to accomplish and to achieve the desired temperature usually causes a significant amount of carbon emissions. Beijing is using natural CO2 refrigeration systems in order to maintain the temperature of the venues, cutting down carbon emissions to nearly zero.
While Beijing and more specifically, the IOC, is doing a great job at keeping the games this year as sustainable as they can possible achieve currently, there is a larger threat at play. It is estimated that with current carbon emissions and greenhouse gas emissions that by the end of the century there will not potentially be a Winter Olympic Games anymore. 21 cities have hosted the Olympic games in the past, but by the end of the century, only 1 of those 21 cities is estimated to still be able to host the event. Keeping the games sustainable is important to continue having the event, but more change still needs to come. Unless the world collectively can begin to reduce the emissions being made, the world might lose one of the greatest unifying events of the modern age.
Works Cited
Chan, Candice Choi and Kelvin. “Explainer: Olympics Show Complexity of Sustainability Claims.” Phys.org, Phys.org, 11 Feb. 2022, https://phys.org/news/2022-02-olympics-complexity-sustainability.html.
Ioc. “Beijing 2022 Sustainability – All You Need to Know – Olympic News.” International Olympic Committee, IOC, 31 Jan. 2022, https://olympics.com/ioc/news/beijing-2022-sustainability-all-you-need-to-know.
Person, and Steve Keating. “Climate Change Will Limit Choice for Winter Games Hosts, Says Study.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 19 Jan. 2022, https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/climate-change-will-limit-choice-winter-games-hosts-says-study-2022-01-18/.