The environmental organization Greenpeace is giving Athens a failing grade for environmental issues in its plans to host the 2004 Summer Olympic Games.
Nikos Haralambidis, Greece’s Greenpeace director said, “the environmental bet seems to have been lost and Greece will get the gold medal in missed opportunities. He added, “we are now taking several steps back from Sydney (in 2000). Sydney got five marks out of 10. Athens does not even get one mark for environmental issues”.
Haralambidis said basic environmental standards, including sun-powered boilers, recycling and waste management systems that organizers said would be included in Olympics facilities had not been integrated in large complexes such as the athletes’ village. He said, “I consider it a major scandal not to have solar-powered boilers for hot water at the Olympic Village. We are a country which has almost constant sunshine and it’s crazy not to use it to cut energy consumption”.
Haralambidis said Athens 2004 organizers, the Greek government and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) were all to blame for a lack of green policies. He said even essential irrigation systems for the thousands of new trees, bushes and shrubs to be introduced for the Games had not been developed.
ATHOC officials said that while they have pushed for increased environmental measures, government and state organizations responsible for projects such as the Olympic village are not always ready to comply. “We continue to push this issue but there’s not always the desired response”, an ATHOC source told Reuters.
