Chen Ke

Hosting a low-carbon and eco-friendly event has been a core concept since the original bid that led to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Across morethan half a decade of preparations,efforts ranging from sustainable use of existing venues to low-carbon publictransportation networks and greenelectricity have been made to give theworld a green Olympics.

Green Venues

Ice and snow are essential elementsfor the Winter Olympics. Equipped with China’s largest carbon dioxide (CO2)transcritical direct cooling ice makingsystem, the National Speed Skating Oval located in downtown Beijing is the only newly constructed ice sports venue forthe 2022 Winter Games and the first ofits kind globally to harness its cutting-edge ice making technology.

Cooling, either by natural orartificial means, plays a fundamentalrole in winter sports. “Comparedwith traditional refrigerationsolutions, the new technology canincrease refrigeration efficiency by20 percent and help maintain thetemperature difference on the entireice surface within 0.5 degrees Celsius,” explained Ma Jin, design leader ofthe refrigeration engineering projectat the oval, who hailed the CO2-based refrigeration as the world’smost advanced and environmentallyfriendly ice making technology, withcarbon emissions reduced to nearly

zero. “By recycling the waste heat, oursystem can save about 2 million kWh of electricity a year,” Ma added.

The first of its type in China, theNational Sliding Center is located in the Yanqing competition zone in suburban Beijing, about 100 kilometers awayfrom the National Speed Skating Oval.The 1,975-meter-long track at the venue has a vertical drop of 121 meters andconsists of 16 curves of varying degrees, including a 360-degree turn previouslyunseen in Asia.

Li Kun, deputy director of theIce, Snow and Special RefrigerationDepartment of Huashang International Engineering Co., Ltd., participated inthe National Sliding Center project from site survey to design, construction,operation, and maintenance. “Thefacility is the first Winter Olympicvenue for bobsleigh, skeleton, and luge events to use a combined cooling andheating system,” explained Li. “Whilecooling the ice surface and maintaining the temperature on the track, oursystem allows the reuse of the wasteheat generated by the compressorunits of the refrigeration system. Therecycled heat warms the office andliving areas in the venue.”

Ecological Conservation

Compared to the Summer Olympics, the Winter Games generally demandmore new construction. Venues foroutdoor winter sports are often built on mountains, which unavoidably exertsa certain impact on the ecologicalenvironment. During preparationsfor the 2022 Winter Olympics, theidea of environmental protectionwas transformed into concreteresults throughout venue planning, construction, and operation.

Home to the National Sliding Center, the National Alpine Skiing Center,and the Winter Olympic Village, thecore area of the Yanqing competitionzone is located at the southern slopeof Xiaohaituo Mountain. The highestaltitude in the zoneis 2,198 meters.Liu Jinzhu, head ofthe AdministrativeExamination andApproval Department of Bureau of Ecologyand Environmentof Yanqing District,noted that the Yanqing competition zoneprioritized ecologicalconservation invenue construction to minimize the impact on theenvironment.

According to Liu, 130 native treeswere saved from removal duringconstruction of the Winter OlympicVillage, 24,000 trees across the entirecompetition zone were transplanted to a designated area, and stones and rocks at the construction site were processed and used to build the exterior walls ofsome structures. “So far, an ecologicalsecurity protection project covering2.14 million square meters and anecological restoration project covering23,000 square meters have beencompleted in the zone, maintainingbiodiversity at a high level.”

In addition to ecologicalconservation projects, efforts havealso been made to build sponge areas in the Zhangjiakou competitionzone in Hebei Province to save water.

The National Cross-Country SkiingCenter, the National Ski JumpingCenter, and the National BiathlonCenter in the Guyangshu Cluster atZhangjiakou are equipped with arainwater collection system integrating water seepage, retention, storage,purification, utilization, and drainageto minimize waste of water resources.“We constructed five reservoirs ofdifferent sizes with a combined storage capacity of 500,000 cubic meters inthe Guyangshu Cluster,” said ZhangLi, chief designer of Big Air Shougangin Beijing and sports facilities locatedin the Zhangjiakou competition zone.“They serve both landscapes andecological conservation, effectivelyimproving utilization of local waterresources.”

Carbon-neutral Olympics

The 2022 Beijing Winter OlympicGames will be the first large-scaleinternational sports festival heldin China since the country madecommitments to achieve carbonpeaking by 2030 and carbonneutrality by 2060. To this end,Beijing has made determinedefforts to neutralize CO2 emissionsproduced from venue constructionand event organization.

According to the Carbon ManagementPlanfor the 2022 Beijing Olympic andParalympic Winter Games issued bythe organizing committee in 2019,four measures for carbon neutralityand 18 emission reduction measureswould be implemented in areas suchas energy use, venue construction,transportation, and environmentalstandards.

A supportive clean energy projectfor the 2022 Winter Olympics, theZhangbei ±500-kilovolt flexible directcurrent (DC) power grid has succeededin integrating hundreds of wind farmsand thousands of photovoltaic powerstations in the city of Zhangjiakou andrealized grid-connected generation andtransmission of green electricity. Thepower grid will make the 2022 WinterGames the first Olympics in historyto be powered by 100 percent cleanelectricity, according to Ding Jianming,deputy director of the Beijing MajorProjects Construction HeadquartersOffice. The project is estimated to beable to deliver about 22.5 billion kWhof electricity to Beijing, about a tenthof the city’s annual electric powerconsumption.

Low-carbon transportation isanother key area to ensure a carbon-neutral Olympics. A green publictransportation network has been builtto fulfill the travel needs within andbetween the three competition zonesin downtown Beijing, Yanqing, andZhangjiakou.

During the Beijing Winter Olympics,spectators will enjoy convenient publictransportation and can get to the venuesby bus, subway, or high-speed rail.Green travel within each competitionzone will also be ensured.