Apr 22, 2008

She’s racing to save the environment. Sara Renner, Canadian cross-country skiing Olympic silver medallist, is taking big strides to prevent climate change. As a new mom, she has extra incentive.

“As a mother, as an athlete and a Canadian, I have a huge responsibility to my daughter,” said Renner. “At a time when it’s so crucial, everyone has to do something for the environment. Everyone has to stand up and say ‘my children are important and I will not be remembered as someone who didn’t do anything.’”

Throughout her 12-year international cross-country skiing career, Renner has witnessed winter climate conditions grow increasingly unpredictable and she sees the unseasonable weather as a threat to the future of her sport.

“I am so used to racing on snow that has been trucked in from hundreds and hundreds of kilometres, and that snow they truck in is getting dirtier and dirtier every year,” said Renner. “It’s just so difficult for these organizers to pull off these [World Cup] races in Europe.”

Al Gore’s climate change boot camp

This month in Montreal, Quebec, Renner attended a three-day intensive training session about environmental science and solutions to the climate change crisis. Talks were led by former United States vice president Al Gore and climate experts, including renowned Canadian scientist Dr. David Suzuki . Renner was among 250 athletes, business leaders, educators, environmentalists and government officials from across Canada who attended the sessions organized by The Climate Project (TCP) Canada . Participants returned home to their communities as climate ambassadors armed with the most current information necessary to increase public awareness of the growing climate crisis.

Renner got her climate change summit invitation through the Clean Air Champions , a non-profit organization seeking to improve air quality by working with respected athletes who motivate and educate Canadians to adopt everyday practices to enhance environmental and personal health. For Renner, attending the sessions was worth the guilty feeling that comes from “burning the carbon” to fly across the Canadian prairies. And to lessen the guilt, she often buys carbon offsets, a voluntary tax on carbon-producing emissions, for air travel. She admits that it’s not ideal, but it’s one of the ways she can lessen her impact.  

Simplify and spend time with family

Adapting to an environmentally friendly lifestyle has great benefits for Renner and her husband, Thomas Grandi, a Canadian Olympian in alpine skiing and president of Alpine Alberta. According to Renner, the easiest way for their family to reduce their environmental footprint is to simplify the way they live. Considering the environment doesn’t require drastic change. It’s the everyday things like eating local foods whenever possible, clothes-line drying her laundry, riding a bike as much as possible, or offsetting her air travel or reducing it when she can. 

“All these things that we do, and all the things that our culture has gotten suckered into, are taking away time from what is important,” said Renner. “It’s the same things that are taking time away from working out, time away from our families. By making your life simpler, you are reducing your environmental footprint, and in the end you are making your life happier for it.”

Call to action

On Earth Day today at the Banff Public Library in Alberta, Renner will deliver her first presentation on climate change, based on Al Gore’s presentation in the Academy Award-winning documentary film An Inconvenient Truth. Meanwhile, Grandi will also have a big Earth Day announcement — the Alberta Alpine ski team will become the first Canadian provincial sport team to go carbon-neutral. Renner and Grandi are just a few of the growing number of athletes willing to step up and support environmental initiatives. The National Hockey League Players Association has so far garnered the support of more than 500 players like Canadian Olympian and Calgary Flames’ right wing Jarome Iginla who are doing their part to reduce their carbon emissions.

Athletes are not immune to the potentially devastating realities of climate change. Support for the environment has reached the world of sport.

As Renner explained: “We are the generation that this [climate change] is falling on our shoulders, and we have an opportunity to rise and do something about the environment.”