01-30-2022 17:18

Can you imagine by implementing a low carbon policy for office work and operation such as holding online conferences, 367,000 sheets of paper can be saved by the organizers during preparations of the world’s biggest sporting event in this year?

Yeah, the Beijing 2022 Organising Committee has managed to reduce the total carbon dioxide equivalent emission by about 402 tons. That’s equivalent to the carbon dioxide amount that a mature tree can absorb from the atmosphere in about 20,000 years.

(Photo credit: CFP.CN)

There’s more.

During the event, the application of the new energy vehicles is expected to reduce about 11,000 tons of carbon dioxide.

Yeah, they are some noteworthy examples of what Beijing has done to accomplish its mission of staging a green, clean Winter Olympics.

Full use of the legacies

Beijing 2022 has made full use of the existing venues for Beijing 2008. These legacies have been renovated in a green way to serve the games such as figure skating and ice hockey. Even the Games’ headquarters sits in a transformed office complex from the old industrial facilities.

In this way, all the legacies are fully utilized; space, resources and money are saved, and waste is avoided.

National Aquatics Centre has been transformed from the "Water Cube" into the "Ice Cube" in preparation for the curling competition.
(Photo credit: CFP.CN)

0 carbon emission

Carbon emission reduction plays a key role in ensuring environmental friendliness.

Beijing has applied the world's top standard ice-making technology to the stadiums. The new refrigerants made of natural carbon dioxide can help reduce carbon emissions to nearly 0.

The technology can also save electricity use by 2 million kWh a year for one of the stadiums only.

What does 2 million kWh mean? One kWh of electricity can charge a typical cell phone about 100-200 times depending on batteries. Once one kWh of electricity is saved, about 400 grams of standard coal and 4 liters of water can be saved at the same time.

Actually, every citizen can contribute to carbon emission reduction and electricity saving in daily life as well. Simply by avoiding products with excessive plastic packaging, or by turning off lights when leaving can help reduce emission or save energy.

100% clean-energy passenger cars

Clean & renewable energy is becoming more popular. You must have seen someone driving a new-energy car in your life. Replacing traditional sources with clean energy will really help a lot.

Vehicle serving Beijing 2022
(Photo credit: CFP.CN)

During Beijing 2022, energy-saving and clean-energy vehicles will account for 100% of all passenger cars and 84.9% of all vehicles. This is expected to reduce about 11,000 tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the carbon sequestration of more than 30 square kilometres of forest in a year.

Besides, 100% of the conventional electricity demand of all venues will be supplied by renewable energy at Games-time for the first time in Olympic history.

20% water cut

A batch of intelligent snow-making machines were introduced in the ski-jumping platform. The utilization of the machines can adjust water usage in different weather conditions and save about 20 percent of the water compared with traditional methods.

Also, the construction of a lightweight roof above the Games’ speed skating arena, using a saddle-shaped cable-net structure, reduced the use of steel by about 3,000 metric tons.

National Speed Skating Oval
(Photo credit: CFP.CN)

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