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| Are the corporate sponsors of the Sochi Winter Olympics missing a big opportunity to advance sustainability globally? |
The Sochi Winter Olympics, which opens 7 February, was meant to be the greenest Olympics ever. The budget was certainly there: Russia has doled out more than $51bn, an all-time record, to make the event happen.
Yet reports of serious environmental problems have been piling up for months. The UN and World Wildlife Fund have called out Russia over construction practices that damaged the region's pristine natural ecosystems.
Might there be a silver lining to be found amid the sustainability commitments made by the game's corporate sponsors.
After all, while the credibility of the Russian organisers' on these issues has all but melted away, the corps of 10 worldwide sponsors includes major global brands, many of which have made deep, long-standing commitments to sustainability.
With one dramatic exception, the games' deep-pocketed sponsors have done too little to promote sustainability as an element of their efforts at Sochi. This top-tier level of sponsorship, rumoured to cost at least $100m per four-year cycle, is far from trivial. And given the International Olympic Committee's growing emphasis on sustainability - the past two games in London 2012 and Vancouver 2010 are considered the greenest ever - these sponsorships seem an ideal platform in which to mix a high-profile sustainability push.
Dow: Sochi's "official carbon partner"
In a first for the games, chemicals giant Dow has pledged to offset the organising committee's entire direct carbon footprint - including greenhouse gas emissions from operating the games' venues, as well as from travel and lodging for all athletes, staff and volunteer - as well as the estimated travel footprint of all spectators and media attending the events.
GE and turbine power
The only other sponsor with a clear environmental angle to its Olympics pledge is GE. The conglomerate is supplying two very high efficiency "aero-derivative" gas turbines to help power the games. The units, which will provide both base load and peak load power to the Olympic village and venues, feature GE's latest technology.
Evolved from aeroplane jet engines, the model is designed to ramp up and down in less than 10 minutes, which makes it well suited to pair with the variable output of wind turbines, solar panels and other renewable energy systems. That's not to say that renewable energy will be powering Sochi. Despite early estimates of promising potential for geothermal, solar hydro and wind.
Big platform, big responsibility
But the overall direction of the Sochi games is discouraging. It's a pity that more companies aren't using the Olympics to up their sustainability efforts, not least because the event offers such far-reaching visibility.
And, lest we forget, lurking behind beneath the immediate question of sustainability is a deeper worry about climate change, particularly as it impacts the viability of future winter sports.
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