7th World Conference on Sport and the Environment - International ...

Report
4.5.3. Global Village of Beijing, China (GVB)
Xiaoyi Liao, President of the Global Village of the Beijing Organizing Committee
for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
The Global Village of Beijing is a non-governmental organization for environment protection that was
founded in 1996 in China. It participated in the Green Olympics plan in 2000 when Beijing succeeded in
applying for hosting the Olympic Games. We believe that “Green Olympics” represents an opportunity to
encourage Chinese people to protect the environment. It will not only spur on a city or a region but will
also help a country, even a nation, to develop concepts about, and practice, environment protection.
At the beginning of this century, environment protection was included into the Olympic Charter, becoming
its third major program after sport and culture. We acknowledge that “sport, culture and environment
protection” are the three mainstays of the spirit of modern Olympiad. The “faster, higher and stronger”
concept we have been familiar with is merely the slogan for the rules and competition of competitive
sports within the sport mainstay. Sport, culture and environment are the only pivotal content that
accounts for the spirit of Olympiad.
As one of the four environment advisers invited by the Beijing Organizing Committee for Olympic Games
(BOCOG), I was honored to participate in the drafting of the Green Olympics Action Plan. I put forward
my ideas on the planning of the Olympic Green, the green worksite and the standards for green hotels.
The Global Village I lead contributed to the Green Olympics together with other non-governmental
organizations for environment protection.
In 2000, 20 non-governmental organizations, including the Global Village, signed the Green Olympics
Action Plan with the Beijing Olympic Games Application Committee (BOGAC). The plan included 30
moves. It should be particularly mentioned that the concepts of green community, green school and
green unit in the Green Olympics Action Plan provided practical channels for us non-governmental
organizations to promote public participation.
After 2000, the Global Village helped establish the Chunshuyuan Green Community in Xuanwu District.
The community received International Olympic Commission Assessment Delegation from the International
Olympic Committee in February 2001. The reception was a success. At the same time, the Global Village
and the Beijing Municipal Committee of Youth Work co-operated to launch an activity entitled “Green
Olympics, Green Life and Green Angels Commitment,” during which 830,000 primary school pupils and
their parents wrote their commitment on cards made from recycled paper, that is to say, one third of
Beijing’s households received and joined in the education about the Green Olympics concept.
In June 2001, I went on a study trip to Sydney supported by the BOGAC. In Sydney I received the
“Banksia Award” – Australia’s environmental prize – and shot a documentary about Sydney’s practices of
Green Olympics. The CCTV broadcast the documentary several times at its prime time of “Green Space”.
The documentary played an active role in spreading the Olympic spirit of “sport, culture and environment”
across the country.
Seven years have passed. The Global Village, together with many other NGOs, has initiated some
influential and creative activities to help the BOCOG implement the Green Olympics Action Plan.
In 2004, supported by the BOCOG, the Global Village urged hotels to pledge to the energy-saving
campaign of “lowering the temperate of the air conditioning by 1 degree Celsius in winter and raising the
temperature by 1 degree Celsius in summer”. It delivered the “publicity cards for environment protection
and energy saving” to about 80 hotels and the move was a success.
In summers in 2004 and 2005, the Global Village joined eight other environment protection organizations
– the China Environment Culture Promotion Council, WWF, China International NGO Co-operation
Promotion Council, Friends of Nature, Environment and Development Research Institute, Green Home
Volunteers, Hong Kong Friends of the Earth and the Conservation International – to put forward a
suggestion that air conditioning be set at no lower than 26 degrees Celsius. The move won support
from Mr. Yu Xiaoxuan, director of the Environment Projects Department of the BOCOG. 26 degree air
conditioning was officially accepted as the national standard for energy saving in 2007.
In 2005, the Global Village, the Environment Protection Office of the Ministry of Railway, the National
Railway Committee of the Communist Youth League and the Environment Department of the BOCOG
jointly launched the “Green Train” program on the T61/62 train between Beijing and Yunnan. The train
broadcasts knowledge about bio-diversities in Southwestern regions, the need to protect them and the
<strong>7th</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>Conference</strong> on Sport and the Environment
International Cooperation and Development Dept.
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