Vancouver hands over athlete's village to Olympics

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- With 100 days to the opening of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, the athletes village was handed over to the Games organizers Wednesday.
The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Winter Games now begins preparing the 1,100 unit village to house 3,000 athletes.
The eight-acre site has waterfront views of the two stadiums that will host the opening ceremonies and hockey events. Beyond are the snowcapped mountains of Canada's pacific coast.
The steel, concrete and glass buildings surround a central courtyard open to Vancouver's picturesque waterfront.
Vancouver Olympic CEO John Furlong said the location of the village, with its views of water, mountains and downtown towers, will help inspire the athletes to the performance of their careers.
The village will have a bank, cafe, stores and a post office.
The $940 million village did not come without controversy, going millions of dollars over budget and requiring the city of Vancouver to come to its financial rescue after New-York-based hedge fund Fortress Investment Inc. pulled their backing when global economic crisis hit.
"This has not been an easy project," Furlong said.
After the Games the village will return to the city of Vancouver, which will try to sell the suites as condos to recoup its investment.
"I would be surprised if we're anything beyond a break-even," Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson said.
Of the 1,100 units available, 737 will be available as condos, with the remaining used as affordable housing and rental properties.
Robertson turned the village over to Furlong in a ceremony at the site.
Furlong said representatives of the 2014 Sochi, Russia and Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games have already visited the Vancouver village as they plan their own.
Organizers also announced this week that accommodations for more than 6,000 people working in and around the Whistler ski resort have been found. Whistler is the site of the alpine and sliding events, cross country, biathlon and ski jumping.
The International Olympic Committee said in a statement that the all of the venues for the Vancouver Games are now complete and they "will give athletes, spectators and TV viewers some spectacular backdrops as they compete and watch the world's best winter athletes go for gold next February."

Vancouver Olympics: Carbon neutral status for push

Twenty five partners of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games have joined forces to help make the Games carbon neutral.
The partners including corporate sponsors, governments and broadcasters have volunteered to offset some of their own carbon emissions related to the Games, such as emissions generated by delegations travelling to and from the region.
These partners will invest in a portfolio of B.C. clean energy technology projects, as well as international Gold Standard offset projects. The 2010 Legacy Portfolio is developed and managed by Vancouver based Offsetters, the Official Supplier of Carbon Offsets for the 2010 Games.
The energy efficiency and renewable energy projects will help offset a newly updated forecast of 268,000 tonnes of carbon emissions 118,000 tonnes from direct emissions and 150,000 tonnes from indirect emissions resulting from Games-time travel by participants and spectators.
This updated estimate, prepared by the Centre for Sustainability and Social Innovation at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business, was released this morning.
A preliminary estimate prepared by the David Suzuki Foundation and reviewed by PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2007 suggested the Games would produce approximately 330,000 tonnes (110,000 direct, 220,000 indirect) of carbon emissions.
"We're excited to announce that 25 of our partners are helping us make the 2010 Winter Games carbon neutral and we expect more to join in the near future," Linda Coady, VANOC's vice-president of sustainability, said in a release. "What's more, athletes at the Games will be the first carbon neutral athletes in Olympic and Paralympic history the result of our partnership with Offsetters where the travel and accommodation of close to 7,000 athletes, coaches and officials will be offset as part of the Games' direct carbon footprint."
The first companies and governments participating in the 2010 Carbon Partner Program for voluntary offsets include: Acklands-Grainger, Afexa Life Sciences (COLD-FX), Aggreko, Atos Origin, Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC), BC Hydro, Bell, Bombardier, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC), Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, Canadian Pacific, Canwest Publishing Inc., City of Surrey, Coca-Cola, Hudson's Bay Company, the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC), McDonald's, Panasonic, the Province of British Columbia, Royal Bank of Canada, Resort Municipality of Whistler, Ricoh Canada, Samsung, The Globe and Mail, and Visa.
In another Olympic first, Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay presenting partners Coca-Cola and RBC joined VANOC in offsetting all their emissions arising from the 45,000-km journey across Canada, as well as from their entire operations related to the Games.
"We're proud to be the first Official Carbon Offsetter in Olympic and Paralympic history and have the opportunity to showcase how British Columbia is playing a leadership role within Canada and internationally in the fast growing clean technology sector," said James Tansey, president of Offsetters, a leading BC-based carbon asset management company and supplier of high-quality carbon offsets. "We also invite spectators participating at the Games, along with members of the public, to help play a role in making the 2010 Winter Games carbon neutral by voluntarily offsetting emissions from their travel to and from the Games region."
Spectators can calculate their carbon footprint and purchase carbon credits online at www.offsetters.ca .
As part of the offset portfolio for the Games, Offsetters is working with B.C. clean technology companies to establish demonstration projects, such as: biomass gasification systems for renewable heat and power production, manufacturing of cellulosic ethanol (biofuel made from wood debris), proton exchange membrane hydrogen fuel cell technology, computer controlled hybrid fossil fuel and electric building heating systems, and reduced carbon footprint silviculture.