| Winter
Olympics Get Green Seal of Approval
Nairobi/Torino,
8 February 2006 – As sportsmen and women from around the world
gear up to compete in this year's Winter Olympics in Torino, behind the
scenes environmentalists are applauding the green credentials of the Games.
Just
as years of training will pay off for the more than 2,500 athletes from
85 different nations competing in 15 different disciplines, the Games
will be the culmination of an extensive environmental programme aimed
at making the event environmentally friendly and sustainable in ways that
will benefit the entire region for years to come.
A high-level delegation from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) will
be in Torino for the Winter Olympics. Led by Klaus Toepfer, UNEP's Executive
Director, they are coming to see at first-hand how the games are delivering
high environmental standards for athletes, spectators, the region, and
the wider world.
Mr. Toepfer said: "Our long-standing productive relationship with
the Torino Organizing Committee will come to fruition when the 'greenest
Games ever' open in Torino. I am particularly pleased that our positive
assessment of the work of the organizers in the field of environmental
sustainability has also been confirmed by our friends at the WWF."
“UNEP has always strongly asserted the important role civil society organizations
have to play in promoting and monitoring environmental sustainability,”
Mr Toepfer added.
During the Games, the UNEP delegation will participate in a number of
planned activities including a 'green dinner' focusing on climate change,
on the evening of 15 February, to celebrate the first anniversary of the
entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol on 16 February.
Ensuring a climate-friendly Games is one of the cornerstones of the preparations
put in place by the Torino Organizing Committee for the 2006 Olympic Winter
Games (TOROC).
The HEritage Climate TORino (HECTOR) project is designed to make the Winter
Games carbon neutral. By supporting forestry, energy efficiency and renewable
energy schemes both at home and abroad, the Torino Olympics will be able
to offset the estimated 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide that will be
generated during the 16 days of the Games.
Key environmental aspects of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino:
TOROC has issued two Sustainability Reports: one in 2003, the second in
2005. They were hailed as milestones in the quest to make mass spectator
events both entertaining and environmentally sound.
TOROC also voluntarily developed a comprehensive Environmental Management
System to integrate the principles of sustainability in the staging of
the Games. The system conforms to the ISO 14001 and the Eco-Management
and Audit Scheme (EMAS) regulation of the European Union.
An extensive monitoring plan was developed for the entire Olympic area
which includes sixteen environmental indicators, including water cycle,
air quality, soil use, energy consumption, waste production, ecosystems,
landscape, and urban environment.
Suppliers of goods and services involved in the Games are also considered
and selected based on the ecological quality of their products. In line
with the European Eco-label for hotel services, TOROC is promoting an
eco-label trademark to touristic sites and hotels in the Olympic areas
and is providing technical support necessary to obtain certification.
A new initiative – Refrigerants, Naturally! – also forms part of this
environmental component of the Games. Two of the official sponsors of
the Olympic Games, McDonald's Corporation and the Coca Cola Company, are
(along with Unilever) the founders of 'Refrigerants, Naturally!'. This
voluntary initiative, supported by UNEP and Greenpeace, is promoting alternative
point-of-sale refrigeration technology in the food and beverage industry
that safeguards the climate as well as the ozone layer.
Under the initiative, Coca Cola has deployed more than 1,000 beverage
machines at the Torino Games that use carbon dioxide as the refrigerant,
thereby eliminating the need for ozone-damaging chloroflurocarbons (CFCs)
and hydroflurocarbons (HFCs).
If such technology were adopted globally on a large scale, it could make
a significant improvement in this industry sector's efforts to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, while at the same time safeguarding the Earth's
protective ozone shield.
Other measures include a waste materials plan to handle the anticipated
increases in rubbish during the games; the development of eco-friendly
buildings at, for example, the new Olympic Village, and the use of pollution-free
materials in their construction; and an extensive sustainable transport
plan.
The waste management plan envisages combining recycling 68 per cent of
organic and other dry waste material produced during the Games with an
efficient system of energy retrieval (32 per cent of the waste being transformed
into fuel), with the ambitious aim of reducing to zero the quantity of
waste destined for rubbish dumps.
Waste production is also being discouraged, for instance by the use of
bio-polymers in disposable tableware and a reduction in the use of paper
for communication and information purposes.
Notes to Editors
For
more information on the Torino Winter Olympics, including the HECTOR initiative,
the Sustainability Reports and other environmental aspects, please visit:
http://www.torino2006.org
Refrigerants, Naturally! is a 'Partnership for Sustainable Development',
recognised by the UN Commission on Sustainable Development as a voluntary,
multi-stakeholder initiative that contributes to the implementation of
Agenda 21, Rio+5 and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation. For more
information, please visit:
http://esa.un.org/dsd/partnerships/public/partnerships/1460.html
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