The Green Olympics: How Does Sustainability Come Into Play ...

by ethicalDeal Marketing Coordinator Meaghan (Meg) Orlinkski

In 2003 Vancouver was awarded the bid for the 2010 Olympic games. This happened to be the first year I lived in Whistler. I remember the pros and cons of the Olympic debate was a daily subject in the village. One of the shinning pros of the bid was that organizers promised these Olympics would be the green Olympics. The Olympic Bid Committee talked of the integration of healthy and sustainable practices into all accounts of the game to be considerate of the sensitive environmental nature of the Sea to Sky Valley.

This would be my introduction to sustainable design. I was in love.

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I moved back to Ontario and was accepted into Ryerson?s prestigious School of Fashion. My communications program had an events management professional stream, and I spent the next four years educating myself as to what a sustainable event was, and the best practices to effectuate sustainable behaviour change using graphic design and marketing. The goal I was working towards was simply to work for the Olympics to make it more sustainable.

In fall of 2009, freshly minted from the program, I moved to beautiful Pemberton, BC to persue my Olympic dreams.? Eventually I found myself with a job in transportation with the Olympic fleet vehicles. Essentially, I was helping put hundreds of SUV?s out into the road. Not exactly what I pictured my dream job to be.

However, since the universe seems to be literal, this was exactly what I had asked for. Creating sustainable change does not have to come from a top organizational or management positions. Creating change comes from all levels of an organization. I had the best position of working directly with my incredible, amazing and inspiring team of volunteer drivers.

I had allies in my fleet when it came to anti-idling policies, a few environmentally conscious drivers and team members where very supportive. However, management did not see an anti-idling policy as a priority. Many of my drivers were older and set in their old Canadian ways that in the winter a car had to warm up for 15 minutes. What to do?

Putting on my marketing hat, I realized that if someone had environmental values, they would already not be idling. Therefore, how to connect to my hundreds of other volunteers who were not greenies?? I came up with two lines of education around anti-idling policies.

The first was an information sheet around our athletes and future athletes. I wanted my volunteers to know that idling our Olympic vehicles could cause damage ? not just to ?the environment?, but to our present and future athletes? lungs. They were the reasons we had left our normal lives behind to be in Whistler.? In a one page information sheet with eight points I simply stated easy to understand information, such as athletes can take in up to six times more air, which means six times more pollution. This causes reduced performance and has been linked to asthmas. ? Another was that children are particularly susceptible to emissions from tail pipes in parking lots due to their height and lung size.

The second stream was respecting our Olympic sponsors. Conserving gas would help our petrol sponsor put more funds towards the actual athletes. We had brand new vehicles, and because of new technology warming up the engine was now obsolete. In fact, idling a vehicle for more than three to five minutes would cause damage to the engine. This is not a way you thank a sponsor.

I put up my information sheets all around our transportation compound. There was much discussion, and even some rather strangely violent opposition to the messages. I had no metrics to measure the impact of this campaign, but qualitatively I know I helped create conversations, change a few minds and help preserve the beautiful mountain air of Whistler.

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Green Olympics in London?

Currently there has been much discussion around the 2012 summer games about the infamous London smog and how it could affect athletes. I am happy this issue is being discussed and studied. Local air pollution is not an environmental issue or special interest. It?s a human issue ? a health issue. In the spirit of the Olympics, I am happy to see the world come together to work on solving this issue for the sake of our future Olympics.

Over the next few weeks, I will discuss further few sustainable issues that surround the games, and provide tips on how you can make athletics more sustainable yourself.

Please enjoy and share Artist Faisal Abdu?Allah?s film Double Pendulum, brought to you by the BBC Olympic 2012 focus.

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About the author:

Meg Orlinski is a Deadly Nightshade. She is fascinated about cognitive rationality and consumer behaviour as it plays out in our constantly shifting economic reality. She also likes to dress in pretty things, ride fast bikes and have dance parties with her friends.

Tags: green olympics meaghan orlinski olympics

Source: http://ethicaldeal.com/blog/2012/07/the-green-olympics-how-does-sustainability-come-into-play/

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