All these were reported at the recently concluded 9th World Conference on Sport and the Environment at Doha, Qatar, where officials of the International Olympic Committee and the United Nations Environment Program, along with sportsmen from all over the globe, also drafted the Doha Declaration.
The declaration asserted sports’ contribution to sustainable development over the years, stressed the need to engage the youth in sustainability campaigns, and appealed for support from governments, local entities and non-government organizations.
“Our commitment to the environment is more than just a matter of self-interest. It is a matter of values,” said Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee.
“Our values require us to act on two levels. First, we must do all we can to ensure that our own activities do not contribute to environmental degradation. At the same time, we have to use sport as a tool to encourage environmentally responsible behavior by others,” explained Mr. Rogge.
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London 2012
The bid by London for the 2012 Olympic Games was embedded with sustainability from the outset, with focus on venues.
The city committed to use venues that already exist in Britain wherever possible, only make new permanent structures that can still be used for the long-term after the games, and build temporary structures for everything else.
Aside from concerns on sports facilities, the city is addressing issues on waste and biodiversity in its Olympic sustainability plan. Steps will be made to ensure that the Olympics will have minimal impact on wildlife and their habitats, no waste will be sent to landfills during the Games, and new waste processing infrastructure might need to be built for east London.
The London Olympic Committee is reporting its progress in implementing these sustainability measures every year. At the same time, it has secured the aid of the independent Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 to monitor the committee’s reports.
Sochi 2014
Aiming to develop the Black sea coastal city as an alpine climatic resort, the management committee of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia plans to build sports and Olympic venues that will set the standards for environmentally efficient construction in the country.
Sochi will address energy use and carbon emissions in its sustainability plans. Transport and power supply systems will be upgraded. Vehicles will be checked for emission of pollutants and will be converted to use clean fuel.
Separate waste collection and waste recycling will be implemented. Water supply and sewage will be checked. As for renewable energy use and carbon emissions, plans have been made to look for alternative energy sources while carbon dioxide emissions will be monitored.
Doha, Qatar
Though not slated to host an Olympic event, the Qatar Olympic Committee, in partnership with the Gulf Organization for Research Development, unveiled the Qatar Sustainability Assessment System standards. The QSAS assesses different kinds of sport facilities throughout various stages of construction – from design and building, up to operations.
The standards cover urban planning and transportation issues, waste and recycling, water and energy consumption, aeration and lighting, ecology of the locations, and even noise pollution. Makers of the standards claim the QSAS is more effective than previous sustainability systems used at past Olympic, World Cup and other sporting events, especially since some of those sustainability standards were not drafted to specifically address sports venues and events.
The standards aim to enable Doha to hold future Olympic events.
Past Olympics
Meanwhile, Mr. Rogge reminded the Doha conference delegates of the Olympics’ past efforts at implementing sustainability strategies, citing the 1992 Earth Summit as a turning point for the Olympic movement.
“The 1992 Earth Summit helped us realize that we could serve humanity by serving the environment. After all, environmental sustainability is linked to our very survival as a species,” said Mr. Rogge.
Heavily influenced by the summit, the 1994 Centennial Olympic Congress in Paris put environmental issues at the top of its agenda. As a result, the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Games in Norway was the first ever to embrace environmental considerations in the planning.
The most recent Olympics, held in Beijing in 2008, had its Olympic Village become the first ever to receive the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. The gold certification was awarded under the council’s pilot Neighborhood Development certification program.
