Chapter 8 –Economic and Environmental Impact of the Olympic
Games
Examples of Olympic Organising Committees’ environmental strategies:
Lillehammer Winter Olympic Games 1994
The Lillehammer Olympic Organising Committee selected 21 priority areas on
which to concentrate its environmental efforts, based on the understanding
that organisers, local community, government and specialised agencies
should work in co-operation and avoid conflicts. The main results achieved by
LOOC were:
 “All the Norwegian Olympic arenas conformed to the latest environmental
standards. Consideration for the environment has been taken into account
in the choice of materials, location, energy consumption, architecture and
transport.
 All contracts with sponsors and suppliers included environmental clauses.
This means that all companies dealing with Lillehammer Olympics had to
deliver products that minimize the adverse effects to the environment, for
example, by having very little packaging and not containing any harmful
substances.
 All waste at Lillehammer Olympics offices were sorted at source and
recycled. Similar methods were employed for waste products at the
Olympic arenas in 1994.
 Lillehammer officials met regularly with representatives of the Norwegian
Society for the Conservation of Nature, the Ministry of the Environment and
environmental authorities of the Olympic municipalities. Mutual cooperation was a precondition for successful environmental protection.
 The Olympic organisation was participating in the development of
comprehensive European environmental projects and has also introduced
smaller environmental projects, such as system for collecting lead bullets at
the Olympic biathlon stadium (the biathlon competition resulted in 500 kg.
of lead waste).
 LOOC encouraged the use of public transport system during the Olympics
and had asked the Norwegian authorities to facilitate the production and
sale of less environmentally harmful fuels. As 1,500 buses were used to
transport spectators and athletes during the Olympics, one goal was to
reduce the harmful effects to the environment caused by this activity”.
Source: (Haugsjaa, 1997:259-60), in Da Costa, L. (Ed.), Environment and
Sport: An International Overview, Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical
Education: Porto
Germany 1990-2004 and Sydney 2000
The German approach to the sport-nature conflict is put in a wider framework
and envisages actions at three levels:
 regulative policies - developing norms and regulations under which
sport takes place;
 planning policies - restricting sports negative impact by planning
means;
 educational policies - providing information and knowledge to
athletes and officials.
Examples of this approach include: German Federal Government ‘Sports
Centre Noise Abatement Regulation’ (1991), German Sports Federation
‘environment rules’ - ‘Water Sportsman’s Ten Golden Rules How to Behave in
Nature’, or the German Skiing Association ‘Environment Plan 2000’.
The organisation of the Sydney Olympics in 2000 was prepared in working cooperation with Greenpeace Australia. They produced Guidelines for the
Olympic Village and the Games, which were incorporated in 1993 by the New
South Wales Government in a State Environmental Planning Policy. Four
areas of environmental concern were identified and norms set binding all
participating parties to conform to them. These include:
 threats to biodiversity - the loss of species through the destruction of
habitats,
 the greenhouse effect, or global warming,
 ozone depletion, decreasing the atmosphere’s ability to screen out
ultraviolet radiation,
 air, water and soil pollution - which reduce the capacity to protect human
health,
 over-consumption of resources - whereby competing demands for the
earth’s limited resources can damage the environment.
Environmental sponsors
Following the Lillehamer Olympic Winter Games in 1994, sponsors and
supporters
of
the
Nagano
1998
Games
demonstrated
respect
to
environmental issues. For example:
KODAK disposed the chemical wastes generated by the company and other
firms;
TOYOTA provided 104 low-emission vehichles, 60 natural gas vehichles, 3
electric cars and 40 hybrid buses;
COCA-COLA provided 2,500 recycling boxes at Olympic venues and
throughout Nagano;
MATSUSHITA provided energy-efficient recyclable products;
XEROX provided copy machines that use recyclable cartridges, wrapping
materials and plastics;
McDONALD’S employees’ uniforms were made from recycled PET bottles,
and the company’s sandwich wraps were made from kenas (a grass product)
instead of wood pulp.
Source: Olympic Marketing Matters, No12, January 1998