Vancouver Gets the Gold for Being "Green"

By guest blogger "Officer Green"

Year after year, determined, skilled, and promising athletes pack their bags and head to the Olympics for their chance at gold. What’s ironic is that something as constant and sound as the Olympics is still undergoing drastic and rapid change- right before our very eyes. What most people don’t realize when they are watch Lindsey Vonn fly down the mountain (regardless of whether she is getting a gold or falling and taking Julie Mancuso down with her), is that they are watching her under B.C.’s new $33 million, 7.9 megawatt small-scale hydroelectric facility from Innergex Renewable Energy Inc.

And this is just the beginning, whether it is for the Olympics or not, B.C. has shown considerable desire to be “greener”- in fact, as Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson has stated, “Our goal is to become the greenest city in the world by 2020, and we will be working hard as a city to participate in the challenge.”

From working with Carbon War Room and Green capital, British Billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s capital fund project which helps businesses support green initiatives in the city, to electric ice resurfacers clearing the skating grounds for the hockey games at the Olympics. Whether they worked or not- it is clear this is a serious, and notable attempt to make Vancouver a healthier stomping ground, both for it’s residents, and the visiting Olympians.

What is also clear is that we are no longer on the tip of the “sustainable” iceberg. We are now knee deep in practices and companies (let alone cities and countries) that have caught on to this soon to be global effort.

Let’s just hope the Joe-six packs of the world figure it out before they are forced off their gas guzzling Zamboni’s!