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VANOC releases its first sustainability report

Critics offer praise for goal of hosting a socially sustainable Games, but say report falls short of expectations

By Clare Ogilvie

The 2010 Winter Games will be the first Olympics to be socially sustainable.

While the idea may seem less than groundbreaking to a community like Whistler it is, in fact, a first of its kind for a hallmark event like a Winter Olympics.

The position was clearly outlined this week as the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) released the first of its annual sustainability reports.

“We are very serious about this,” said Linda Coady, the vice president of sustainability for VANOC.

“It is not a bumper sticker, or a plaque, or an information brochure. We are going after this in a rigorous and accountable way that we hope at Games time people in Canada can be very proud of because it speaks to their values.”

The 82-page report is the compass by which VANOC will measure how it is doing on sustainable issues as it moves the Games into its operational stage. A report will be released each year and in 2009/2010 it will be evaluated by an outside source to ensure accuracy in reporting.

There are six performance objectives; Accountability, environmental stewardship and impact reduction, social inclusion and responsibility, aboriginal collaboration and participation, economic benefits from sustainable practice and sport for sustainable living.

Colin Hansen, the provincial minister responsible for the Olympics, welcomed the report.

I think it shows that VANOC is on track to delivering on the commitment that they made to have the most sustainable Games ever to date,” he said.

All of these measures will be evaluated within a VANOC definition outlined in the report. It states: “We have drawn our sustainability reporting boundaries around those issues and activities where VANOC has direct decision-making authority.”

That means that it is not responsible for sustainability issues in building the Richmond skating oval, for example, or the upgrades to the Sea to Sky Highway.

But it does mean it is responsible for sustainability at new venues VANOC is building, such as the Whistler Nordic Centre.

VANOC will also measure how much energy it uses, the emissions created by its operations, indeed, every employee will have some role to play in reaching VANOC’s sustainability goals, said Coady.

There are challenges, for instance, getting access to biofuels. VANOC is currently using five hybrids and 12 flex-fuel vehicles. It would like to use more but accessing fuels and vehicles is an issue.

On the economic front VANOC says it’s committed to giving employment opportunity to groups such as aboriginals and inner city residents. But making that happen is mostly up to business.

Indeed, Ann Duffy, lead author on the report and VANOC’s program director for sustainability, said the report offers a heads up to anyone thinking of applying for contracts that sustainability is front and centre.

“We want to notify the market well in advance so (it) can prepare…,” she said.

In May VANOC was criticized by an Olympic watchdog group for not doing enough on the sustainability front, pointing specifically at the displacement of low-income residents in certain Vancouver neighbourhoods.

This report, said Coady, shows that organizers are committed to producing 250 units of low-income housing, and continuing to meet with other stakeholders on the issue. VANOC has also created a contingency fund to help manage any spike in homelessness during the Games and organizers are endeavouring to make sure that workers and visitors coming for the Games do not displace other residents.

“…This report is the foundation of how we will be able to demonstrate that we did indeed walk our talk. It doesn’t mean we will score 10 out of 10 on every variable but it does mean that we will keep track of them all and being accountable for what happens.”

Keenan Moses of AWARE said the organization was still studying the document and couldn’t comment by deadline.

Not everyone is satisfied with the report.

“The VANOC report on evaluating themselves actually came from themselves so that does raise the issue of conflict,” said Vancouver Mount Pleasant NDP MLA Jenny Kwan.

“We have a huge opportunity to showcase the best Games ever and we have huge opportunity to advance to other jurisdictions in the future how to do it right and we need to step up and commit to that. Fancy words and self-evaluation and patting ourselves on our own back does not do it.”

Kwan pointed to the report’s comments on VANOC’s commitment to produce socially sustainable housing at the site of the Vancouver athlete’s village and its commitment to minimize negative impacts of the Games on the inner city.

She wants VANOC to call on all levels of government to fund recent recommendations by a stakeholder round table to provide 3,200 units of housing.

“Why (isn’t VANOC) putting pressure on the government to meet those recommendations so that they could say to the world that we are meeting those commitments and we are doing it in a way that no other jurisdiction has ever done it before and this is the standard that we are going to set for major events in the future and we can be proud of that legacy,” said Kwan.

“There is the opportunity to do that but they need to do it.”

But said Hansen: “VANOC is not the body that is going to solve all our social challenges. They have a role to play and I think they are playing it, which is evidenced by the report out today.”

He pointed to bylaws operated by Vancouver which offer some protection to inner city residents as well as initiatives taken by the province on social housing including the purchase of a number of downtown hotels.

Said David Eby, of the Impacts on Community Coalition and the Pivot Legal Society, “My first reaction was disappointment.

“Vancouver is really innovative for a Games host city in that they made commitments on environmental sustainability and social sustainability.

“The goal was that this would be the first Games that would be socially and environmentally sustainable and reading through the report it is clear that what is going on is a public relations exercise and not real action on the issues that matter.”

Eby says there is still time for all levels of government and VANOC to work together to meet their goals but action must be taken soon.

This week also saw the release of a report by the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, which found that in the last 20 years nearly two million people have been displaced by the Olympics.

COHRE’s executive director said: “We will be watching Canada carefully in terms of both the positive and the negative.”

The report found that 1.5 million people will have been displaced for the Beijing 2008 Games. At the 1988 Seoul Games 720,000 were forcibly displaced.

It took three years to complete the research, which focused on Olympics and other mega events. It found that large-scale events often lead to rising housing costs, resulting in forced evictions, displacements and criminalization of the homeless.

COHRE, which is UN funded, will be holding a workshop on its findings this month, which Eby has been invited to attend. The International Olympic Committee will also be attending.

“…This research is so essential because it helps us see that bigger trend,” said Eby.

“This has happened in every Olympic city and Vancouver is not special or different in that it is not happening here or it is not going to happen here.”

To read VANOC’s sustainability report and answer a survey on it go to www.vancouver2010.com and follow the links.

Sustainability means using, developing, and protecting resources at a rate and in a manner that enables people to meet their current needs and also provides that future generations can meet their own needs. 

It requires simultaneously meeting environmental, economic and community needs.