UN Environment Program (UNEP) MOU signing - Statement by John Furlong
Good morning.
It is an honour to be here today at the United Nations. The UN family has a distinguished record of engaging with the world of sport as a champion for significant human and global causes.
Today, we are here in a spirit of cooperation with the United Nations Environment Program. We recognize how Sport can play a role in development of life skills and influence individuals and communities around the world to make more sustainable choices. The evolution of Olympic values, from their initial focus on the practice of sport as a human right to where sport can play a key role in the development of humankind, is broadening the legacy of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Vancouver 2010 aims to use sport and the growing interest in sustainable living to inspire action on local and global sustainability challenges.
Our bid to host the 2010 Games included a commitment to embrace sustainability in everything we do. For us, sustainability means managing and behaving responsibly. The social, economic and environmental aspects of our Games produce lasting benefits – for ourselves and for the world.
We’ve taken on the challenge of hosting “sustainable Games” by carefully managing and offsetting our impact to conserve the natural environments that are so precious to us. We’ve downsized venue sites; designed energy efficient buildings to achieve silver or higher LEED standards, and worked hard to monitor and restore any disturbed habitats near our venues.
Our team has found innovative ways to conserve energy by recapturing lost heat at many of our venues to heat other facilities, and we’re designing energy plans focused on sourcing green power to reduce the need for back up diesel generators.
Finally, Climate Change is at the top of our environmental agenda having set an early goal of a carbon neutral Games. We are focused on the reduction of energy consumption and pollution and continue to work with our partners and sponsors to develop traffic and transportation plans. Of note, we’ve adjusted our current fleet to include 53 hybrid or flex fuel vehicles this year.
As you can see we’ve taken our responsibility very seriously, however it is about more than just the environment for us. We’ve further embraced the third pillar of the Olympic Movement so that our sustainability objectives include commitments to achieve unprecedented Aboriginal Participation in the planning, hosting and legacy of the Games, and we have pledged to stage Games that are fiscally responsible, socially inclusive and accessible.
To show that we are walking our talk, we openly share our progress and our challenges in our annual Sustainability Report which is based on the well known international standard called the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines.
We behave ethically, we treat our workforce well and we meet with many stakeholders on a regular basis. We collect feedback on our activities to inform our behaviour and our performance going forward.
This is a team effort that includes our government and corporate partners who also are incorporating sustainability requirements into their contracts and tenders.
Contractors for our venues have learned and adopted best practices in sustainable development because of the requirements we set for the construction of our venues.
Licensees have aligned their business practices to conform to our code of conduct and ethical sourcing policy – and as a result they have capacity and more opportunity to engage with other global companies who expect adherence the same standards.
Our Sponsors have started a Sustainability Council to work with each other to find ways of contributing to our 2010 Games sustainability goals.
At the World Conference on Sport and the Environment in Beijing, President of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, announced last Thursday that we will host the next conference in 2009 in Vancouver. This for us is fantastic news as we are delighted to host such an important conference for which UNEP is also closely involved.
The event will showcase the progress being made by the Olympic Movement in the field of sustainable development and allow us in British Columbia Canada to tell our story. New knowledge on these issues will be shared as the best experts from different sectors come together to encourage cooperation and further development of environmental initiatives as they relate to sport and the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Today is a great day. We are here to affirm our commitments to stage our Games in a responsible manner and we have an outstanding partner in the UN Environment Program to help us accomplish that goal.
In our attempt to inspire the world in 2010 - collaborating with bodies such as the UNEP to build our sustainability platform wisely has the potential to touch and inspire the lives and spirit of all those touched by the Games.
Thank you.
It is an honour to be here today at the United Nations. The UN family has a distinguished record of engaging with the world of sport as a champion for significant human and global causes.
Today, we are here in a spirit of cooperation with the United Nations Environment Program. We recognize how Sport can play a role in development of life skills and influence individuals and communities around the world to make more sustainable choices. The evolution of Olympic values, from their initial focus on the practice of sport as a human right to where sport can play a key role in the development of humankind, is broadening the legacy of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Vancouver 2010 aims to use sport and the growing interest in sustainable living to inspire action on local and global sustainability challenges.
Our bid to host the 2010 Games included a commitment to embrace sustainability in everything we do. For us, sustainability means managing and behaving responsibly. The social, economic and environmental aspects of our Games produce lasting benefits – for ourselves and for the world.
We’ve taken on the challenge of hosting “sustainable Games” by carefully managing and offsetting our impact to conserve the natural environments that are so precious to us. We’ve downsized venue sites; designed energy efficient buildings to achieve silver or higher LEED standards, and worked hard to monitor and restore any disturbed habitats near our venues.
Our team has found innovative ways to conserve energy by recapturing lost heat at many of our venues to heat other facilities, and we’re designing energy plans focused on sourcing green power to reduce the need for back up diesel generators.
Finally, Climate Change is at the top of our environmental agenda having set an early goal of a carbon neutral Games. We are focused on the reduction of energy consumption and pollution and continue to work with our partners and sponsors to develop traffic and transportation plans. Of note, we’ve adjusted our current fleet to include 53 hybrid or flex fuel vehicles this year.
As you can see we’ve taken our responsibility very seriously, however it is about more than just the environment for us. We’ve further embraced the third pillar of the Olympic Movement so that our sustainability objectives include commitments to achieve unprecedented Aboriginal Participation in the planning, hosting and legacy of the Games, and we have pledged to stage Games that are fiscally responsible, socially inclusive and accessible.
To show that we are walking our talk, we openly share our progress and our challenges in our annual Sustainability Report which is based on the well known international standard called the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines.
We behave ethically, we treat our workforce well and we meet with many stakeholders on a regular basis. We collect feedback on our activities to inform our behaviour and our performance going forward.
This is a team effort that includes our government and corporate partners who also are incorporating sustainability requirements into their contracts and tenders.
Contractors for our venues have learned and adopted best practices in sustainable development because of the requirements we set for the construction of our venues.
Licensees have aligned their business practices to conform to our code of conduct and ethical sourcing policy – and as a result they have capacity and more opportunity to engage with other global companies who expect adherence the same standards.
Our Sponsors have started a Sustainability Council to work with each other to find ways of contributing to our 2010 Games sustainability goals.
At the World Conference on Sport and the Environment in Beijing, President of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, announced last Thursday that we will host the next conference in 2009 in Vancouver. This for us is fantastic news as we are delighted to host such an important conference for which UNEP is also closely involved.
The event will showcase the progress being made by the Olympic Movement in the field of sustainable development and allow us in British Columbia Canada to tell our story. New knowledge on these issues will be shared as the best experts from different sectors come together to encourage cooperation and further development of environmental initiatives as they relate to sport and the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Today is a great day. We are here to affirm our commitments to stage our Games in a responsible manner and we have an outstanding partner in the UN Environment Program to help us accomplish that goal.
In our attempt to inspire the world in 2010 - collaborating with bodies such as the UNEP to build our sustainability platform wisely has the potential to touch and inspire the lives and spirit of all those touched by the Games.
Thank you.
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